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AKARTA: The Indonesian Food and Beverage Association (Gapmmi) wants the government to tighten supervision at unofficial ports and border areas to curb illegal imports.

Gapmmi secretary-general Franky Sibarani said on Saturday in a statement that such places were a potential entrance point for illegally imported food and beverages as the government has principally focused on six official ports stipulated in a 2008 Trade Minister regulation. “In border areas and areas outside Java, we can find a lot of imported food and beverages, despite the low figures for imports at the ports in those areas,” he said.

According to Gapmmi, in the first half of 2011, 81 percent of the nation’s imported food and beverage products valued at US$91.6 million entered Indonesia through Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, followed by $13.7 million of goods at Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya, while the remainder entered through Belawan Port in Medan, Dumai Port in Riau, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta and Tanjung Mas Port in Semarang.