Bali Provincial Agriculture Office urged people to consume local fruits related to the circulation of import apples suspected contaminated harmful bacteria.

“From the beginning we wanted to realize it even the regulation for ‘love local agricultural products’ campaign has been existed,” said the Head of the Provincial Agriculture Office of Bali, Ida Bagus Wisnuwardana in Denpasar on Monday.

According to him, the regulation is on the Protection of Local Fruits which essentially provides protection for local fruit developed and cultivated on the island.

Hospitality and restaurant businesses or the tourism sector on the island are also hoped to give more priority to the use of local fruit.

But he said that his party could not prohibit the hospitality and tourism industries if they are not always use local fruit remembering that depending on the season.

“Our local fruit depending on the season, while the tourism sector has plenty of holiday seasons,” he said.

In terms of quality, Wisnuwardana convinced that local fruit’s quality is not inferior to the quality of imported fruit.

However, he requested the local fruit businessman in Bali to pay attention towards the packaging.

“The quality is good, the price is also competitive, the packaging may still be lacking,” he said.

He mentioned that some of local fruits such as mango and mangosteen have entered the export market to several countries including South Korea, East Timor and China.

The appeal to consume local fruit as recently fruit imported from the United States is predicted contains bacteria of “Listeria monocytogenes”.