February 13, 2001

U.S. Chicken Parts: Meeting Halal 
Standards at a Fair Price 

Indonesian version

The United States is concerned by official statements reported in the local media questioning the halal status of U.S.-produced chicken parts imported into Indonesia. Specifically, these reports have contended that U.S. chicken parts may not comply with halal standards because chicken parts shipped to Indonesia were originally destined for Russia, which does not have halal preparation requirements. The U.S. Embassy wishes to clarify this matter. 

Halal Status: U.S. chicken is the safest chicken in the world. All U.S. chicken parts shipped to Indonesia comply with halal certification requirements that the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture (DP) and Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) helped to establish. The incident that prompted the DP officials concerns' occurred more than 18 months ago, when one shipment of U.S. chicken parts in Russian-language packaging materials arrived in Indonesia. Although the U.S. Government believes that shipment was certified halal and the Indonesian Government never found evidence to the contrary, the incident nonetheless prompted an exhaustive review of the U.S. halal certification system. 

The U.S. Government has cooperated closely with the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture and MUI to establish a network of DP- and MUI-accredited U.S. Islamic centers. Thus far there are six such Islamic centers. 

The halal certification guidelines establish that a halal supervisor must oversee every stage of the chicken part production process, from the slaughter of the chickens to the storage of the final product. MUI has not expressed a single concern about the U.S. halal certification system since it became standard practice in May of 2000. 

Pricing: It has also been alleged that the U.S. chicken industry is selling chicken parts at unfairly low prices, thus harming the domestic Indonesian chicken industry. That is untrue. In fact, the U.S. Government has donated more than USD 1.9 million to help Indonesian chicken producers improve their productive capacity. 

In the United States and throughout the world, chicken is priced and traded as a commodity. The price of bulk frozen leg quarters--the basic chicken commodity on the international market--is published daily, and is subject to the laws of supply and demand on the international market. 

Please direct any further inquiries about this matter to either Kent Sisson or Deanna Ayala at the U.S. Embassy's Foreign Agricultural Service, 3435-9161.

Indonesian version

* * *