Jakarta (ANTARA) – Trade Minister Budi Santoso urged fishery product exporters, particularly shrimp and shrimp products, to intensify exports to Saudi Arabia.He conveyed this in response to the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA)'s approval of Indonesia's proposal to reopen export permits for shrimp and shrimp products from Indonesia.”The SFDA's decision to reopen export permits for shrimp and shrimp products from Indonesia is good news. We hope this opportunity can be maximized,” Santoso remarked in a statement on Monday.Exports of shrimp and shrimp products to Saudi Arabia were suspended for around eight months starting September 7, 2025, following concerns over cesium-137 contamination in Indonesian shrimp.Consequently, the SFDA revoked the permits of four Indonesian exporters.The ministry's Director General of National Export Development, Fajarini Puntodewi, explained that Indonesia has opened a dialogue with the SFDA to address this issue.Indonesia submitted a report supporting the safety of Indonesian shrimp products as a consideration for reopening the entry of Indonesian shrimp into Saudi Arabia.”Now, based on the latest SFDA decision, the permits of the four exporters have been restored,” Puntodewi noted.Efforts to reopen shrimp and shrimp product exports to Saudi Arabia are being carried out by the Indonesian Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) and the Cesium 137 Task Force under the Coordinating Ministry for Food Affairs, the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh, and the Indonesian Trade Attaché in Riyadh, all in collaboration with the SFDA.To date, Indonesia has 63 fish product companies and 18 processed fish product companies registered with the SFDA.The SFDA allows all these companies to export to Saudi Arabia by following the cesium 137-free certification procedures already applied in the United States.