Thousands Of Indonesian Shrimp Containers Are Finally Allowed To Enter The US After The KKP And FDA Agreements

Illustration - Shrimp vaname. BETWEEN PHOTOs/Moch Asim/wsj.

The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) has reached a dispensation agreement with the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), so thousands of containers containing shrimp from Indonesia on their way to the US are now allowed to enter the country.

The agreement was reached on October 18 local time after going through a series of intensive negotiations following the issuance of a new import policy by the US government, namely Import Alert (IA) #99-52, which will take effect from October 31, 2025.

Head of the Marine and Fisheries Product Quality Control and Supervision Agency (BPPMHKP) KKP Ishartini said, after a long discussion in a special forum with the FDA, policy makers at a high level finally gave approval for the entry of thousands of shrimp containers from Indonesia.

"They provide dispensation for thousands of Indonesian shrimp containers that are on their way and will arrive in the US after October 31, 2025," said Ishartini in Jakarta, Antara, Sunday, October 19.

The Import Alert #99-52 policy stipulates strict supervision of shrimp products from Indonesia, especially those from Java and Lampung, to ensure that there is no radioactive contamination of Cesium-137.

This policy requires every product from the affected area to be equipped with an official Cesium-137 Cesium-free certificate issued by competent authorities in Indonesia before being able to enter the US market.

The new rules had raised concerns among export businesses and the national shrimp industry. Thousands of containers of Indonesian shrimp are known to have been on their way to the US and are expected to arrive after October 31 deadline, without the required additional documents.

"We managed to convince the FDA that more than 1,000 shrimp containers that will arrive after October 31 have gone through a strict quality assurance process and are equipped with a Fishery Product Quality Certificate (SMKHP) issued by the KKP," said Ishartini.

He added that all the shrimp containers will still undergo examination by the FDA upon arrival in the US to ensure that there is no Cesium-137 contamination, in accordance with applicable regulations. A similar examination was also applied to containers that arrived before October 31.