The medicinal herb trade could be opened up after an agreement has been reached between Indonesia and Malaysia. Indonesian exporters had complained that the strict Malaysian regulations that required herbs to be imported with labels in the Malaysian language were stunting export potential.

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After the meeting on Monday, Indonesian Health Minister Achmad Sujudi said that the two governments had agreed that trade “hurdles were only a minor problem.”


He added: “Malaysian food and medicinal products are free to enter the Indonesian market without changing the label, therefore we expect them to give us equal treatment.”


Currently, Indonesia exports around 300 different medicinal herbs, worth US$5.1m every year, and more meetings will now be held to discuss the future growth of this trade.

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