The Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan held a meeting with the Executive President of the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) Hisham bin Saad Al-Jadhey to discuss a number of matters, especially exports of Indonesian products, especially in the agri-business sector such as agriculture, fisheries and the processed food and beverage industry to Saudi Arabia
The second meeting aims to strengthen exports of Indonesian products to Saudi Arabia and resolve trade issues that have the potential to hinder Indonesia's exports to Saudi Arabia. The meeting is part of a trade mission to Saudi Arabia which will be held on 21-23 January 2022.
During the meeting, Zulkifli revealed that SFDA could provide facilities and convenience for access to Indonesian products to enter the Saudi Arabian market, including processed food products, fishery products, especially farmed fish, poultry and meat products, and accelerate the completion of cooperation discussions on product quality assurance. lawful.

"I hope the SFDA can immediately follow up on a number of things that are Indonesia's concern to facilitate the process of registering Indonesian products in Saudi Arabia, so that Indonesian products can be consumed by pilgrims, especially Indonesian pilgrims," hoped the Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan.
Zulkifli also confirmed to SFDA that in relation to poultry and meat products, Indonesia has exported to Japan, Singapore, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea. Meanwhile for fishery products, Indonesia has also succeeded in exporting to America, China, Japan, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and several other countries.
"I asked the SFDA to immediately hold a meeting at the technical level to speed up the registration process for Indonesian products and immediately complete discussions on cooperation in the halal sector, so that Indonesian products, especially products in the Indonesian agricultural and fishery sector, can be immediately accepted on the Saudi Arabian market," added Zulkifli.

In addition, Zulkifli also believes that bilateral trade relations between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia will increase in the future. This is supported by plans to form a trade agreement between Indonesia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Saudi Arabia as a member country of the GCC.
Meanwhile, SFDA Executive President, Hisham bin Saad Al-Jadhey said, Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world and Indonesia and Saudi Arabia's bilateral relations are very strong. Saudi Arabia has implemented standards for certain products and Indonesia has very high quality products.
For this reason, SFDA believes that Indonesian products have been widely accepted by the Saudi Arabian market. SFDA will try to facilitate and provide convenience for Indonesia in its efforts to enter the Saudi Arabian market.
"Regarding the registration of Indonesian products, especially fishery, poultry and meat products and cooperation in the halal sector, we will immediately follow up. We will immediately hold a meeting at the technical level with partners in Indonesia to discuss accelerating the registration process and including costs, as well as discussions related to halal so that Indonesian products can immediately enter the Saudi Arabian market," Hisham added.

Hisham hopes that the bilateral relations between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia will get stronger in the future. This is due to the fact that there are still many potentials for cooperation between the two countries, both in the fields of trade and investment.
As is well known, trade between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia in the January-November 2022 period, Indonesia's trade with Saudi Arabia was recorded at USD 7 billion, up 45.42 percent from the same period the previous year which was recorded at USD 4.82 billion.
In January-November 2022, Indonesia's exports to Saudi Arabia were recorded at USD 1.84 billion, consisting of oil and gas exports of USD 200 thousand and the rest were non-oil and gas exports. Meanwhile, Indonesia's imports from Saudi Arabia were recorded at USD 5.17 billion, consisting of oil and gas imports of USD 4.33 billion and non-oil and gas imports of USD 842.30 million.

Saudi Arabia is the 24th ranked export destination country for Indonesia. Indonesia's main export products to Saudi Arabia include motor cars, palm oil, prepared/preserved fish, sauces and plywood. Meanwhile, Indonesia's main imports from Saudi Arabia include crude petroleum oils, petroleum oils, petroleum gases, acyclic alcohols, and polymers of ethylene.

Source: https://www.neraca.co.id/article/174956/ekspor-agri-dan-industri-mamin-ke-arab-saudi-diperkuat