Australian Government Backs New Indonesian ‘Halal Law’

Sydney, 14 Jumadil Akhor 143/13 March 2017 (MINA) – Australia’s trade minister has backed new Indonesian laws that will require all meat sold in the Muslim nation apart from pork to be halal certified.

From October 2019, Australian beef cattle and sheep will have to have their throats cut, before they are stunned, to be widely marketed in the world’s biggest Muslim country.

Trade Minister Steven Ciobo, who visited Indonesia for three days last week, has backed the new laws which had input from religious clerics.

Australia supplies 80 per cent of Indonesia’s beef, marking a huge slice of the nation’s $9 billion beef export industry.

Halal product assurance is important to Indonesian consumers,’ a spokeswoman for the trade minister told Daily Mail Australia on Monday.

‘Australia already operates a halal certification scheme and the vast majority of Australian beef and meat products currently exported to Indonesia are halal certified.’

To qualify as halal, live animals must have their throats cut as part of the slaughter.

This occurs shortly after the livestock is stunned in many cases.

However, animal rights activists in Australia have been campaigning to close a loophole that allows some halal abattoirs to refrain from having to stun beef cattle before the slaughter ritual.

In October 2014, outgoing Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed a law stipulating that by 2019, halal certification would be compulsory on all food imports into Indonesia.

It also covers beverages, cosmetics and medical products. (T/RS05/RS1)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)