Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia and Uruguay on Monday explored cooperation for strengthening halal product guarantees (JPH) to improve product quality in the international market and as a commitment to providing halal products.The cooperation was explored during a working visit by Uruguayan government representatives to the office of the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Central Jakarta on Monday.
"This JPH collaboration is important because it is related to trade cooperation or export and import of halal products between the two countries," Head of the Halal Product Assurance Agency (BPJPH) of the ministry Muhammad Aqil Irham said.
He added that the collaboration is important especially because starting October 2024, all products entering, circulating, and being traded in Indonesian territory will need to be certified as halal.
Irham said that collaboration with Uruguay is necessary to realize the goal of making Indonesia the No. 1 center of halal product producers in the world.
According to him, so far, one halal institution from Uruguay, namely UIC Halal Certification, has applied for accreditation to collaborate with BPJPH.
The application was made in April 2024, he added. However, the processing of the application in the BPJPH's SiHalal system is pending as the institution has yet to provide the documents required by the agency.
"We hope that today's meeting can encourage the implementation of the MoU (memorandum of understanding) and the assessment process of halal institutions in Uruguay so that the MRA (mutual recognition agreement) can be carried out more quickly," he said.
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During the meeting, Minister of Livestock, Agriculture, and Fisheries of Uruguay Fernando Mattos Costa said his country is interested in exchanging information regarding JPH regulations and policies implemented in Indonesia.
He also expressed an interest in learning more about the culture and traditions of Indonesia, especially developments related to halal product guarantees.