’Jamu’ makers get ready for AFTA by standardising products
New Straits Times, Malaysia
’Jamu’ makers get ready for AFTA by standardising products
27 March 2007
BERNAMA/JAKARTA, TUES: ‘Jamu’ or medicinal herb tonic producers in the Southeast Asian (SEA) region are making efforts to standardize their commodities in the face of the advent of the Asean Free Trade Area (AFTA), an Indonesian jamu businessman said.
“We are now making preparations for the adoption of common standards for medicinal herb tonics produced in Asean member countries so that jamu made in one country can be readily accepted in the others,” Charles Saerang, chairman of the Indonesian Jamu Producers Association, said here Monday.
Speaking to the press on the sidelines of an Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) leadership meeting, Saerang said standardisation of jamu in the Asean region was quite necessary because there was a very wide variety in the medicinal herb tonics being produced in the region.
The main producers were Indonesia and Malaysia.