Canned fish in Indonesia
Indonesia is an important player in the fish canning industry, with a domestic production capacity of 750,000 tonnes per year (BKPM, 2015). Indonesia produces canned sardines and mackerel (300 mln cans all together) for the domestic market (90%) and canned tuna for the export market (99%). Canned tuna exports held a volume of 76,752 tonnes in 2017 making Indonesia the sixth largest exporter of canned tuna products after countries like Thailand, Ecuador and the Philippines. For specific insights on the Indonesian fresh and frozen tuna industry, look at our tuna and bycatch page.
Indonesian tuna canneries are confronted with a lack of raw materials. Its deep-sea fishery is not well developed and canneries are impacted heavily by the measures against IUU fishing taken by the government. Indonesia’s fishery Minister Susi Pudjiastuti imposed measures such as a ban on the transhipment of fish at open sea and the ban on license renewal for foreign-built vessels. Although the measures should result in a more sustainable fishery sector, in the short term the raw material shortage worsens. The ministry plans to purchase and build new modern vessels that should fill the void that the foreign vessels have left. Also, investments in local cold chains to reduce post-harvest loses of the domestic vessels are encouraged. Gradually domestic fish landings, infrastructure and supply to canneries should improve.