Indonesia reaffirms safety of shrimp and spice exports to US
Officials say no shipment with specialised certification was rejected by US regulators, as the emergency response to contamination in Cikande ends.
Indonesia says testing and shipment-specific certification are ensuring that shrimp and spices exported to the United States satisfy safety requirements. The government renewed that assurance as it ended the emergency response to Cesium-137 (Cs-137) contamination in Cikande, Banten, on October 19, 2026.
Bara Krishna Hasibuan, an expert staff member to the coordinating minister for food affairs, said American regulators had not rejected any shipments covered by the specialised certificates. He described the system as the new standard for complying with US export requirements.
Bara said Cs-137-free certification issued by the Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministry covered 6,291 containers of shrimp between October 2025 and September 2026. The volume was 95,438 tons, valued at Rp16 trillion. For spices, the Indonesian Food and Drug Authority (BPOM) certified 835 shipments involving 1,235 containers worth Rp48 trillion between November 2025 and September 2026.
BPOM and the Agency for Marine and Fisheries Quality Control and Supervision (BPPMHKP) issue the certificates. Bara said the US Food and Drug Administration maintained their recognition as certification bodies following a May 2026 visit by a delegation that evaluated certification bodies, processing facilities and testing laboratories.
The verification followed engagement initiated in November 2025 by Indonesia's Cs-137 Task Force with US food regulators, customs authorities, the Department of Energy and major importer associations.
The contamination originated at a smelting plant run by PT Peter Metal Technology. Radioactive material concealed in scrap metal vaporised during processing, with airborne particles spreading to nearby parts of the Modern Cikande industrial estate in Serang. The emergency phase ended after containment and remediation work, but Bara said the task force would continue supervising follow-up measures.
