Being the largest archipelagic country globally, with more than thirteen thousand islands, Indonesia is rich in marine resources. Indonesia scores among the top five of fishery and aquaculture producers in the world. Its tuna fisheries are among the largest and most productive worldwide and with its shrimp sector, Indonesia is among the top three producing nations in the world. With the world its fourth largest population – 258 million people – and the 16th largest economy worldwide Indonesia is not dependent on export markets but has a large domestic market for fishery and aquaculture products as well. In recent years, Minister Susi of Marine Affairs and Fisheries introduced new policies to combat illegal fishing in Indonesian waters such as the seizure and destruction of illegal vessels at sea. The new policies are expected to have a positive impact on domestic fish landings and investments in industrial infrastructure. Marine fisheries and aquaculture are expected to play an increasingly important role in economic development and food security.
Selva Shrimp’s production in Indonesia has been highlighted in an article by the World Economic Forum as a sustainably produced shrimp that restores protects mangroves as well as livelihoods. Selva shrimp first started in Vietnam.
Hendrix Genetics has recently announced that it will open a breeding centre in Indonesia, with the expected date somewhere early in 2021, that will sell specific pathogen-free broodstock.
March 2020, Indonesia’s government announced the plan to increase the country’s earning from shrimp by 250% by 2024. Industry insiders question the likelihood of that. Some of the reasons cited were local infrastructure, competition for…
Click on the species and find out more about the species in Indonesia
Fishery and aquaculture production data tend to be uncertain in Indonesia. The large number of landing sites and aquaculture farms located throughout the archipelago make it difficult to monitor production effectively. It is important to keep this in mind when looking at these fishery and aquaculture production figures on this page and on our other Indonesian sector pages; the numbers should be considered as approximations rather than hard facts. According to the MMAF’s Central Bureau of Statistics Indonesia's total of fishery and aquaculture production reached 23.5 million tonnes in 2016 (SIDASTIK, 2017), with the FAO (2018) reporting a similar figure. Marine capture fisheries accounted for 6.1 million tonnes of the total production, freshwater capture accounted for 432,475 tonnes. Marine and brackish water aquaculture systems produced around 13.1 million tonnes and freshwater systems 3.4 million tonnes. The Indonesian government is invested in boosting the nation’s seafood sector and increase their exports. The seafood sector contributed 8% to the nation its GDP in 2016 and is expected to increase in future years (Jakarta Globe, 2017). Fishery exports, led by shrimp products, valued up to US$ 4.2 billion 2017 (Trade Map, 2017). Besides improving Indonesia’s competitive advantage of the seafood sector, the Indonesian government is also invested to use the seafood sector to bolster national food security. Domestic consumption of fishery and aquaculture products has increased over the last few years and was estimated to be 44 kg/head/year in 2016, depending on the region. The capture fisheries and aquaculture sector employ around 2.6 and 2.4 million workers respectively, and over 1 million workers are involved in processing and marketing (FAO, 2016).
FAO (2018)
Both the Indonesian fisheries and aquaculture sector have been growing steadily the last couple of years. Capture fisheries production stabilized after 2014. Aquaculture production increased by approximate 6%. Of the total aquaculture production, 70% accounts for the culture of seaweeds (11,631,000 tonnes) increasing slightly over the years. The
remaining 30% of aquaculture [read-more]production grew with 14% from 2015 - 2016. The Indonesian government is invested in improving its fisheries policies to enhance the living standards of fishermen and boost investments in the seafood sector.
As a result of the moratorium on fishing in large swathes of Indonesia's Exclusive Economic Zone imposed by Minister Susi, fishery production numbers are expected to be lower (stabilize) compared to previous years. For aquaculture a continuation of the trend of previous years is expected.
FAO (2018)
While global capture production has been quite stable over the last years, aquaculture production has been increasing steadily with 1 mln tonnes since 2013, with cultured seaweed (approx. 400,000 tonnes increase) and freshwater fish (approx 400,000 tonnes increase) being the main reason for this growth between 2015-2016. The dominant
species cultured are red seaweeds, which occurs both in marine and brackish water. Shrimp culture represents a relatively small volume, but is very important in terms of value. Fresh water culture of pangasius, catfish and tilapia is relatively low but is expected to increase the coming years with the increased investments of the Indonesian government. All the pangasius is currently used for the domestic market.
Trade Map (2018), International Trade Centre, intracen.org. Note that these figures do not include export of seaweed.
Indonesia is one of the largest suppliers of shrimp to the US market, as Indonesia is not affected by the US
anti-dumping duties. However, this could change under the new protectionist minded government of the US, which might impose more anti-dumping and countervailing duties to protect the national industry. Over half of the import value of the US from Indonesia consist of frozen shrimp. Other important export products are prepared and preserved crab, fish fillets and prepared and preserved shrimp. Exports to Japan have been decreasing the last years. Indonesian exports to Japan largely consist of frozen shrimp (44%), and fresh and frozen tuna. Around 57% of the EU import value from Indonesia is accounted for by the Italy, United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The EU predominantly imports prepared and preserved fish and value-added shrimp products. Vietnam mainly imports frozen fish and molluscs.
Other important markets for Indonesian seafood include Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan.
Trade Map (2018), International Trade Centre, intracen.org
Indonesian exports of seafood (including value-added) products have remained stable over the last five years. Shrimp is the dominant export product, and is mostly exported in frozen and prepared and preserved form. Other important export products include frozen tuna species, fish fillets and canned fishery products. Seaweed exports, though not included in this graph, brought in 159 million US$ in 2017.
Last updated: 01/10/2018
| Species | Number of Farms | Total Volume (MT) |
|---|---|---|
| Shrimp | 6 | 12,281 |
| Species | Number of Farms | Total Volume (MT) |
|---|---|---|
| Shrimp | 32 | NA |
| Species | Number of Farms | Total Volume (MT) |
|---|---|---|
| Shrimp | 3 | NA |
Indonesia scores 109 out of 189 on the World Bank its Doing Business In Index. This section will provide you with all up to date need to know information about trading and investing in seafood in Indonesia. The following topics are covered: click the links below to learn more!
The goal of Indonesia Fair Trade Programs is to create resilient livelihoods in coastal communities, improved working and living conditions, increased supply and demand for responsibly sourced seafood, and enhanced environmental stewardship and ecosystem protection (Fishing and Living). Since 2014, the Central Maluku yellowfin tuna fishery got certified against the first Fair Trade Wild Capture Fisheries standard. They are currently working to maintain their certificate, and adding new fishery associations and fishermen to the program.
The Indonesia Fishery Improvement Program (FIP) is an overarching program that covers several gear specific FIPs, and applies a holistic approach to improvements in Indonesian tuna fisheries. Fisheries involved in the overarching program are: the Indonesian purse seine and longline fishery for albacore, yellowfin and bigeye tuna, pole and line fishery for skipjack and yellowfin tuna, and handline fishery for yellowfin tuna. The goal of these FIPs is to reach Marine Stewardship Council certification.
The project aims to improve the commercial capacity of the Aceh Aquaculture Cooperative (AAC) through technical knowledge transfer and capacity building coupled with the business skills required to manage an ongoing enterprise. This will improve community incomes, allow for greater gender equality and finally greater wealth creation for the province. The final objective is to reach the target of 1,500 farmer members producing 9,000 tons of responsible product in 2016 to reach international markets.
The goal of this project is to make the Indonesian companies involved in this program to become strong exporters to Europe and strengthen the Indonesian seafood sector as a whole. To implement this project CBI is working together with the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, and offer coaching and training to the selected companies.
With this Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs funded project Wageningen UR and partners implement interventions that improve the post-harvest situation in Indonesia's fisheries and aquaculture supply chain. The project is implemented in partnership with the the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries in Indonesia.
With a broad consortium of Dutch research institutes and private sector partners the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta attempts to develop a plan to strengthen port infrastructure in Ambon. This should result in a stronger local economy and improved connectivity to other parts of the country.
In Indonesia 5000 people, primarily men, are receiving training on better shrimp farming practices towards the local Good Aquaculture Practices (GAP) certification and on group development. 5000 people associated with these shrimp farms, mainly women, are receiving training on improved post-harvest processing of products from the ponds with the aim of improving income through the development of small businesses. There are two main areas of focus; that farms perform more efficiently and that overall risks are reduced through greater coordination between farms, specifically with the development of local resource user groups. The expected shrimp production of this project is 38,500 MT Indonesia GAP certified.
A Dutch consortium of coastal engineering concerns, NGOs and maritime knowledge institutes (Witteveen+Bos, Deltares, EcoShape, Wetlands International, Wageningen University and IMARES) together with the Indonesian government and Indonesian partners recently developed an innovative approach to mangrove restoration near the city of Semarang, northern Java island. With the initiative the partners aim to enhance coastal resilience for 70,000 vulnerability people in Central Java by avoiding further coastal flooding and erosion and by providing them with a long term perspective for sustainable economic development through revitalization of aquaculture ponds for crab and shrimp farming.
Building on a history of coastal management interventions before and after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, MFF provides a collaboration platform among the many different agencies, sectors and countries which are addressing challenges to coastal ecosystem and livelihood issues. MFF activities in Indonesia are supporting local communities to restore and manage coastal ecosystems in order to improve the benefits obtained from it. Priority is being given to building awareness on the economic value of coastal resources and increasing the resilience of ecosystem-dependent coastal communities. Local Indonesian communities are learning about the importance of mangroves for storm protection, fisheries support, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and also their cultural significance.
BESTTuna is a research program aimed at contributing science to promote the sustainability of global tuna stocks, through benefiting from innovations in sustainable and equitable management of fisheries on transboundary tuna’s in the Coral Triangle and Western Pacific. The program explores whether and how these innovations, in the form of market-based governance arrangements, provide adequate incentives to adopt sustainable fishing practices and that reduce pressure on tuna stocks.
The objective of the COREMAP-CTI project is to institutionalize the COREMAP approach of a viable, decentralized and integrated framework for sustainable management of coral reef resources, associated eco-systems and bio-diversity for the welfare of the communities in seven selected districts of five provinces in the country. The project covers the following components: institutional strengthening for decentralized coral reef management, development of ecosystem-based resources management, strengthening sustainable marine-based economy; and project management, coordination and learning.
The Project aims to promote food security and sustainable poverty reduction of rural communities in the most vulnerable and disadvantaged districts of Indonesia’s Nusa Tenggara Timur province, through increased labour productivity, enhanced employment opportunities that comply with the principles of decent work, and expanding entrepreneurial opportunities in key agro-food value chains – particularly maize, seaweed and livestock – with high employment and income generation potential.
The SMART-Fish Indonesia is a 5-years trade related, technical assistance program to improve the trade capacities of three selected value chains in different fishery sectors in Indonesia. The goal of the program is to strengthen the trade capacities of the pole-and-line and hand line tuna/skipjack, the aquaculture pangasius and the aquaculture seaweed value chains, while conserving biodiversity through promoting sustainable use of these fisheries resources
The ministry and its specific departments for aquaculture, fisheries, quality, international cooperation play an important role in regulating the fishery and aquaculture sector. However, in recent years an increasing share of responsibilities has been decentralized to provincial governments.
Although AP5I was founded by the five biggest seafood exporters, nowadays the association represents a number of other export companies as well. AP5I lobbies to the government and increasingly also attempts to develop other services for its members.
ASTUIN aims to safeguard the tuna industry, covering all the aspects of the tuna supply chain. To strengthen the durability of the tuna industry they are focusing on sustainable use of tuna resources. In addition, they act as an intermediary between the Indonesian government and private companies, as well as other national and international related organisations.
The National Indonesian Fishermen Association, Himpunan Nelayan Seluruh Indonesia (HNSI) in Indonesian, is officially established on 21 May 1973. It joined forces of six previous fishermen's organisations that represented their political interests.
The Indonesian Catfish Industry Association (APCI) is an Association for the Indonesian processing industry and producers of pangasius fish. It’s role and responsibility are to support and encourage the development of the Indonesia pangasius industry in a sustainable and competitive environment in Indonesia.
