Jakarta. The Indonesian government confirmed Tuesday that radioactive contamination involving Cesium-137 in shrimp products is limited to an industrial estate in Cikande, Banten, and has not affected the wider supply chain or exports

Chief Food Affairs Minister Zulkifli Hasan said the government has designated the Cikande estate as a special incident zone to allow swift containment and decontamination.

“This enables us to act quickly to handle and neutralize the contamination,” Zulkifli, better known as Zulhas, said after a coordination meeting in Jakarta on Tuesday.

He stressed that Indonesia’s seafood quality monitoring system continues to comply with both national and international standards, ensuring that local shrimp products remain safe and competitive in global markets.

As a precaution, authorities have re-exported 14 containers of contaminated scrap metal from Tanjung Priok Port, with nine more containers from the Philippines to follow. “If containers used for scrap are later used for shrimp, the products could be exposed, which is dangerous,” Zulhas warned.

The measures came after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed traces of Cs-137 in frozen shrimp exported from Indonesia. The government has since kept the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) updated to demonstrate transparency and accountability.

Initial investigations found the contamination source at Peter Metal Technology (PMT), a steel plant in Cikande that processes scrap metal. The radiation is believed to have spread through airborne particles.

“Because it is airborne, the contamination could be carried by wind. The shrimp packaging facility of Bahari Makmur Sejati (BMS) is located less than two kilometers from the steel plant,” said Food Affairs Ministry expert staff Bara Khrishna Hasibuan.

The contamination was detected not only in the shrimp packaging but also on the containers used for shipping.

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