Bid TIK Polda Kepri – Jakarta. Indonesian Quarantine Agency (Barantin), destroyed 86.4 tons of imported onion commodities from the Netherlands worth IDR 1.25 billion.
“Today we are destroying 86.4 tons of onions from the Netherlands. These onions were destroyed because they contain OPTK (quarantine plant pests) called nematodes,” said Head of Barantin, Sahat Manaor Panggabean, as reported by Antaranews, on Friday (2/28/2025).
The destruction of the onions was carried out because they tested positive for the nematode aphelenchoides fragariae, which is a quarantine plant pest. The destruction was carried out using Barantin’s incinerator machine.
The commodity was imported by one of the business actors in Indonesia. The onions arrived in Indonesia via Tanjung Priok Port, North Jakarta on February 5, 2025.
“If these nematodes are spread in the environment, it will also disrupt the productivity of the surrounding plants,” he said.
In addition, he also emphasized that the destruction was carried out as a form of Barantin’s commitment to ensuring that imported agricultural commodities distributed in the domestic market are truly safe in order to protect the public from hazardous substances.
He continued that his party had also informed the exporting country to pay more attention to the quality of goods to be exported so that the incident would not happen again.
Furthermore, he said that the three containers of onions were found to contain dangerous organisms after being tested by an internationally accredited laboratory belonging to the Animal, Fish and Plant Quarantine Applied, Technique and Method Test Center (Karantina Uji Terap) in Bekasi.
“We have a proper and accredited quarantine lab and we have done all testing stages well. In our test, we have also notified the business actors and they agree for us to destroy it,” he concluded.
