Jakarta. The Indonesian government has reached an agreement with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reopen access for Indonesian shrimp exports to the United States, officials said on Sunday.

The deal allows thousands of Indonesian shrimp containers currently en route to the US to enter the country despite a new import regulation taking effect later this month, said Ishartini, head of the Marine and Fisheries Product Quality Control and Supervision Agency at the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry.

The agreement was finalized on Saturday US time, following a series of intensive negotiations over the implementation of Import Alert (IA) #99-52, which is set to take effect on October 31, 2025.

“The FDA has granted a special exemption for thousands of shrimp containers already shipped and due to arrive in the US after October 31,” Ishartini said in Jakarta.

The new import alert mandates strict monitoring of shrimp shipments from Indonesia, particularly those from Java and Lampung, to ensure they are free from radioactive Cesium-137 contamination. It also requires official certificates from Indonesia verifying that products from affected regions are free of radioactive substances.

Last month, US authorities temporarily rejected shipments of Indonesian shrimp after detecting traces of Cesium-137, sparking concern among exporters and triggering urgent talks between the two governments.

The latest deal eases industry fears, as many exporters had already dispatched containers that would arrive after the new regulation’s deadline but without the additional certification required by the FDA.

“We successfully convinced the FDA that over a thousand containers had passed Indonesia’s stringent quality assurance system and were already certified under our national fisheries quality control framework,” Ishartini said.

She added that once the containers arrive in the US, FDA inspectors will still conduct radiation checks on all shipments, regardless of their departure date, to ensure full compliance with American safety standards.

An investigation by Indonesian authorities earlier this year traced the Cesium-137 contamination to shrimp products sourced from areas near the Cikande Industrial Zone in Banten Province, where imported metal waste containing radioactive material had been improperly stored.

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