Market · Indonesia
Exporting Canadian food to Indonesia
Agreement status and duty implication
Signed, not yet in force. Global Affairs Canada gives the current status of the Canada–Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement as “Signed” as of 24 September 2025, and records it as not in force. Until it enters into force it confers no preferential treatment, and Indonesia is not a CPTPP party, so plan a landed cost on the most-favoured-nation position, not on CEPA.
Indonesia is the largest market on this site by population and the most procedurally demanding to enter. Two separate approvals run in parallel rather than in sequence (food registration and halal certification) and each has its own authority, its own dossier and its own calendar. Treating them as one process, or assuming the second follows automatically from the first, is the most common planning error on this route.
The duty position depends on your tariff classification and on the agreement position for Indonesia, both of which we publish with the source and the date. Where they read "available on request", we have not verified that line and will not substitute a plausible figure.
Registration pathway
01 · Determine BPOM product category
BPOM
Category sets the registration route, dossier content and evaluation track.
Typical duration: On request
02 · Appoint an Indonesian importer holding the required licences
Commercial arrangement
BPOM registration numbers are issued to the local importer, who then controls the listing.
Typical duration: On request
03 · Halal certification assessment
BPJPH
Mandatory halal certification applies to most food categories; assessment runs through a recognised body.
Typical duration: On request
04 · File the BPOM registration dossier
BPOM
Specification, testing, certificate of free sale and CFIA export certification.
Typical duration: On request
05 · Indonesian-language label approval
BPOM
Bahasa Indonesia labelling with the BPOM registration number is mandatory.
Typical duration: On request
06 · Customs clearance and first import
Indonesian Customs
Import licensing and tariff treatment depend on classification.
Typical duration: On request
Available on request: send your specification and destination and we'll confirm within five working days.
Who holds the registration
Indonesia ties the paperwork to a party on the ground more tightly than any of the other five markets. The label must carry the name and address of whoever brings the food into Indonesia, and the registration of a foreign halal certificate is applied for by the importer or its official representative in Indonesia rather than by you. Both of those are in the regulations, and together they mean a change of importer is new artwork as well as a new filing.
Settle the holding structure before the first dossier goes in, not after. Ask what happens to the registration on termination, get the answer written into the distribution agreement, and price the cost of a change of importer into your view of the relationship.
Top Canadian categories
Logistics
Main ports: Tanjung Priok (Jakarta), Tanjung Perak (Surabaya), Belawan
Transit from Vancouver: On request
Transit from Montreal: On request
In detail
Canadian suppliers registered for Indonesia
Federally registered establishments in the categories where Canada publishes establishment numbers, with whatever Indonesia has approved shown first.
- Canadian beef & veal exporters for Indonesia (18 listed, 6 approved)
- Canadian pork exporters for Indonesia (47 listed, 10 approved)
- Canadian poultry exporters for Indonesia (32 listed, 5 approved)
- Canadian seafood & fish exporters for Indonesia (1190 listed, 0 approved)
Common questions
- Is there a free trade agreement between Canada and Indonesia?
- Signed, not yet in force. Global Affairs Canada gives the current status of the Canada–Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement as “Signed” as of 24 September 2025, and records it as not in force. Until it enters into force it confers no preferential treatment, and Indonesia is not a CPTPP party, so plan a landed cost on the most-favoured-nation position, not on CEPA. This was read from Global Affairs Canada on 2026-09-01.
- What are the steps to register a food product in Indonesia?
- 6 stages: determine bpom product category, appoint an indonesian importer holding the required licences, halal certification assessment, file the bpom registration dossier, indonesian-language label approval, customs clearance and first import. Each is set out on this page with the authority that handles it.
- Which authority regulates imported food in Indonesia?
- BPOM, BPJPH, Indonesian Customs. Which one you deal with depends on the stage: classification, the product filing and customs clearance are not handled by the same body.
- Who holds the product registration in Indonesia?
- Indonesia ties the paperwork to a party on the ground more tightly than any of the other five markets.
- What are the food labelling requirements in Indonesia?
- Bahasa Indonesia is required by regulation, not by convention: PP 69/1999 requires label information to be written in Bahasa Indonesia, Arabic numerals and Latin letters, and allows another language only where no equivalent exists or can be created.
From the library
Written about Indonesia
Halal certification
Indonesia’s halal obligation: what October 2026 does and does not settleIndonesia is coordinating across nineteen ministries for an obligation that starts on 18 October 2026. What that date covers is clear for domestic producers and, as we read it, still unsettled for imports. Here is exactly what is published and what is not.
Halal certification
Halal for Malaysia and Indonesia: two markets, two recognised listsA halal certificate is only worth what the destination recognises. Which Canadian certifiers Malaysia and Indonesia each accept, why the lists differ, and why the CFIA will not settle the question for you.
Halal certification
Halal meat from Canada: two approvals, two lists, one certificateFor meat, halal splits into two separate approvals that people treat as one. A body that may certify your product is not necessarily a body that may authorise the slaughter, and Canada publishes a list of the second that most exporters have never opened.
Halal certification
Which Canadian halal certifiers Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore actually recogniseFour Canadian bodies appear on at least one of the three recognition lists. Only one appears on all three. A producer holding the wrong certificate has a valid certificate and no market, and the gap is invisible until a consignment is stopped.
Halal certification
What halal certification certifies, and what it does notA halal certificate attests to an audit. It does not attest to market access, and nothing on the certificate tells you whether the destination accepts the body that issued it. For an exporter those are two different documents that happen to look like one.
Halal certification
The Canadian halal certification bodies, compared on what destinations sayFour Canadian bodies appear on the recognition registers of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. Comparing them on service or price is somebody else’s article. This compares them on the only axis an exporter cannot negotiate: which destinations accept them.
Halal certification
There is no halal licence, and the confusion costs real moneyPeople search for a halal licence because that is what the thing behaves like: permission to sell, granted by an authority, revocable. It is none of those. Understanding what it actually is changes who you apply to, what you are buying, and what can be taken away.
Halal certification
The halal logo: who owns it, who may print it, and when artwork can be finalisedHalal marking is not a badge you add to a design. Two of the three markets put specific obligations on the pack, one of them requires a number that does not exist until somebody else has filed for it, and getting the order wrong means reprinting.
Sources
- Canada-Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) · Global Affairs Canada, retrieved September 1, 2026
- Canada’s international trade and investment agreements · Global Affairs Canada, retrieved September 1, 2026
- Canada-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement: negotiations · Global Affairs Canada, retrieved September 1, 2026
Last reviewed: September 1, 2026