A North Sumatra company has exported 40 tons of animal feed worth US$21.8 thousand to Singapore in a break from the past when the province relied on imports to meet its animal feed requirements.

“The Agriculture Ministry through the Agriculture Quarantine Office in Belawan and the Directorate General of Customs and Excise office in Belawan had partaken in the animal feed export send-off ceremony hosted by PT New Hope Medan,” head of the Agriculture Quarantine Office in Belawan, Andi Yusmanto, said here on Thursday.

The export is exceptional as the province only imported animal feed for years and the company is experienced to produce animal feed products for the domestic market, he said.

The quarantine office issued a health certificate for the company’s animal feed product after performing physical and administrative examinations to ensure its compliance with the destination country’s legal and market requirements, the office head informed.

He lauded the company for producing export-quality animal feed with 70 percent local material content, despite several materials that need to be imported for finishing the product.

“We laud PT New Hope Medan for successfully creating export-quality products complying with Singaporean legal and market requirements,” Yusmanto said.

The quarantine office is committed to supporting the Agriculture Ministry’s program to improve agricultural exports threefold by facilitating local entrepreneurs to export such products, he added.

The Belawan Agriculture Quarantine Office has been appointed as the program’s coordinator in the North Sumatra province, he informed.

With the diverse potential of export commodities from North Sumatra’s farming and agricultural sectors, Yusmanto expressed confidence the province would be successful in enhancing agricultural exports and fulfilling the ministry’s mission.

Source: Antara News