Jakarta, April 11 (Antara) - In an effort to improve the welfare of its
fish farmers, Indonesia is boosting its 'patin' catfish (Pangasius)
production, stopping its imports of the commodity from Vietnam and
aiming its exports to the United State market.
For the goals, the Ministry of Maritime and Fisheries Affairs is
targeting a production of over one million tons of patin fish this year
and is developing patin cultured centers and patin fillet processing
industries.
"We
are encouraging patin producers in Indonesia to double their
production. If the need for patin of local market is already met, the
next target would be the export market in the United States," Maritime
and Fisheries Affairs Minister Sharif Cicip Sutarjo said when launching
the first patin processing industry in Kasang Pudak Village, Muarojambi
District, Jambi province over the weekend.
The minister has the dream to advance patin catfish production as part
of the country's efforts to advance its industrialization in the fishery
sector.
"The Maritime and Fisheries Affairs Ministry (KKP) will continue to
support efforts of accelerating the country's industrialization in the
fishery sector. This is done by developing the upstream and downstream
areas," the minister said.
For
this purpose, the minister said, the KKP is developing pilot projects
on 'patin' catfish fillet processing industries in a number of locations
such as in Muarojambi District in Jambi, Kampar District in Riau,
Karawang and Purwakarta districts in West Java, Banjar district in
South Kalimantan, and Tulungagung in East Java with funds taken from
the state budget.
The
pilot projects are expected to encourage all stakeholders in increasing
national patin catfish production. "I hope this cooperation will run
smoothly and successfully so that it will really serve as integrated
upstream-downstream fish processing industry pilot projects in
Indonesia," the minister said.
Fish farmers in Jambi have been complaining of difficulties in
marketing their fish products but the present of the fillet processing
industry in Kasang Pudak Village, Morajambi, will help them absorb their
fish regularly.
So far, pond and floating fish cage farmers face high fish food price
and unstable patin prices in the domestic market. The setting up of the
patin fish processing in the village is viewed to be a helpful step
because fish farmers in Muarojambi District are able to produce 25 tons
of 'patin' catfish per day, Muarojambi District Head Burhanuddin Mahir
said meanwhile.
"With production reaching 25 tons per day, Muarojambi becomes a patin
catfish production hub in Jambi," Muraojambi District Head Burhanuddin
Mahir said.
Meanwhile,
according to Saipuddin, the head of the local Maritime and Fisheries
Service, the DKP ministry has stopped the importation of patin fillet,
hoping that the need for patin fillet at home would be met by local
producers.
Indonesia previously imported patin fillet from Vietnam, but the import
had been stopped to encourage patin farmers at home in increasing their
catfish production.
"The patin fillet processing unit has been
prepared based on the DKP ministry's directives. It was built in
cooperation with PT Indo Maguro, which processed the products. It has
been in operation for one month now," he said.
"The capacity of the patin fillet processing center will be gradually
be increased. The company said that if production is already running
well, it will produce some five tons of patin fillet per day," he said.
Data at the DKP local office indicated that the production of Jambi's
cultured patin catfish reached 24,827.4 tons in 2012 with farmers
reaching 17,448 families.
"Hopefully, the presence of the patin processing industry would provide market for fish farmers," he said.
He said that the Jambi processing center was the first to operate in
the province. "Jambi will be made one of the country's patin fillet
processing centers. Based on a decision by the Maritime and Fisheries
Ministry (DKP), three provinces have been appointed to become patin
processing centers, namely the provinces of Jambi, Riau and West
Kalimantan," he said.
The Ministry of Maritime and Fisheries Affairs has predicted that
Indonesia's 'patin' catfish (Pangasius hypothalamus) production this
year will exceed one million tons.
"Indonesia's patin catfish production continues to increase
significantly," Maritime and Fisheries Affairs Minister Sharif Cicip
Sutardjo said.
He said that Indonesia's patin catfish production in 2006 was recorded
at 31 thousand tons while in 2012 it had increased to 651 thousand tons.
Therefore, he said, his ministry continues to encourage and increase
patin catfish production with the target this year set at 1.107 million
tons.
The minister said that his ministry had selected patin catfish as one
of the fishery products in the acceleration of the country's fishery
industry from the cultured fish sector.
The maritime and fisheries affairs ministry has decided to set up patin
production centers in 10 provinces in Sumatra, Java and Kalimantan.
He said that patin-based fish processing industry in Indonesia was
still carried out in a small-scale (UMKM) but it had a good prospect to
be developed into a large scale industry.
Currently, there are eight patin fillet processing units in Jakarta,
Surabaya (East Java) and Banjarmasin (South Kalimantan) with Pangasius
hypothalamus patin species as raw materials.
"To support the development of patin processing industry in Indonesia,
the maritime and fisheries industry is developing patin production
centers which have integrated infrastructure facilities," he said.
The Maritime and Fisheries Affairs Ministry will therefore continue to
develop upstream and downstream fisheries to realize the country's
industrialization in the fishery sector.
The development is carried out through the application of technology,
improvement of human resources quality and the provision of
infrastructure and production facilities.***3***
(T.A014/H-YH)
(T.A014/A/A. Abdussalam/A/Yosep) 11-04 |
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