The Directorate General of Intellectual Property - Ministry of Law and Human Rights in collaboration with ARISE+ Indonesia, hosted a webinar entitled “Control and Certification of Geographical Indications Products in Indonesia,” on 27 October 2020. The event was opened by Mr. Nofli, S.Sos, S.H., M.Si, Director of Trademark and Geographical Indication and attended by more than 50 participants from various institutions including the Ministry of Trade, Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, IG Protection Society Foundation (MPIGs), National Certification Body (BSN).
The webinar was to increase stakeholder understanding on the importance of official controls and strict compliance verification of GI products, before they enter the market. The promotion of Geographical Indications (GI) on high-end market niches aligns with Indonesia’s strategy to increase exports and improve export quality. Indonesia has a solid legislative infrastructure for GI but procedures and competencies must be updated to meet international standards and deliver traceable and authentic products to consumers.
In his opening speech Mr. Nofli said that Indonesia has many good GI products, including coffee, rice, spices, fruits, crafts, marine products and fisheries, but there is a need to reinforce monitoring to ensure that standards are complied with. 
“The challenge is how to maintain the reputation, quality and characteristic of each GI product. It would be better if we could improve all those three components”
The event, moderated by Giovanni Galanti, GI Expert, ARISE+ Indonesia Technical Assistance Team, was marked by the participation of a large panel of GI specialists from Indonesia, Italy and Thailand.
During the rich discussions stimulated by the presentations, participants expressed their interest on measures that may be taken to reinforce the GI authenticity and build consumer trust in GI products. It was generally agreed that a comprehensive set of action was needed to ensure better control. Those comprise:
- Introduce solid controls for compliance before placing the product on the market and market surveillance activities and legal protection of registered names should be strengthened;
- Establish internal control procedures/plans (ICP) for a limited number of MPIGs as pilot and support certification projects;
- Promote collaboration among private and public sectors to ensure that controls are carried out in line with international standards such as ISO 17065;
- The improvement of control will become even more important in the context of Indonesia-EU Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement which aims at facilitating the registration of 70 Indonesian GIs in the EU and 200 EU GIs in Indonesia;
- In the medium term, KAN needs to be strengthened to develop specific procedures under ISO 17065 for geographical Indication products;
- Collaboration with international institutions may be sought for increased knowledge sharing and peer review. Discussions with the ICQRF (Department of Central Inspectorate for Fraud Repression and Quality Protection of the Agri-Food Products and Foodstuff), Ministry of Agriculture Italy will be pursued.
A workshop on Market Control and Legal Protection is already planned for November 2020 under the ARISE+ Indonesia Programme. More actions will be deployed in 2021 to address the needs through the collaboration of relevant ministries and agencies.
GI Certification and Control Specialists:
- Sugeng Raharjo, Division Head for Accreditation of Certification Body of Product, Process and Service: “Differences between accreditation and certification: potentialities for ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation in Indonesia,”
- Riccardo Cozzo from Bioagricert Unipersonale: “Why GI Certification is Relevant for Consumer and Buyer?”
- Chanapon Noikeang from Bioagricert Thailand: “GI Certification Experiences in ASEAN region,”
- Hadiyan Wijaya Ibrahim from Gayo Arabica Coffee MPKG: “Report Experiences from Indonesia: What does GI Certification Require and Mean for Producers in Indonesia,”
- Arief Safari, Head of Research and Development Commission, National Consumer Protection Agency (Standardisation, Conformity Assessment Expert) as well as an expert from ARISE+ Indonesia: “The Standard of GI Quality from Consumer Protection Perspective,”
- Nurmala Martin from ARISE+ Indonesia Technical Assistance Team: “GI Branding and Promotion,” and
- Caecilia Widyastuti from ARISE+ Indonesia Technical Assistance Team: “Traceability and Control System.”
