RI`s kerapu fish officially free from hazardous substances

Director General of Fish Breeding, Made L Nurjana said here on Wednesday that generally Indonesia`s kerapu fishes were raised in remote areas in ponds where the water was tranquil and of good quality.

"The kerapu fishes are exported live to China. If they had been contaminated with hazardous substances they would have died before arriving at their destination," the director general said.

Chinese quarantine officials, at a meeting with the director general, and Agriculture Ministry representatives recently claimed processed fish from Indonesia circulating in China had been found to be tainted with heavy metal substances.

Chief of the Ministry of Agriculture`s Quarantine Department, Syukur Iwantoro said based on sample tests routinely conducted by China`s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ), mercurial and cadmium residues that exceeded tolerable limits were found in Indonesia`s processed fish products circulating in China.

The matter led China to temporarily terminate Indonesia`s fishery product imports.

"Quarantine officials had found Indonesian aquatic products tainted with mercury, chromium, the antibacterial drug nitrofural, and pathogens," the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ) said.

Director General Nurjana said that in order to export kerapu fish, a long time which could reach one year was needed to raise them before they could be exported.