REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SURABAYA – The demand for East Java crab from international market was high, even it increased every year, the Head of East Java Marine Affairs and Fisheries Department, Kardani, said. Unfortunately, East Java faces some difficulty to fulfill the demand because the lack of commodity.

“The supply deficiency is because the haul or available cultivation mainly for local market, including for restaurant. On 2011, the export volume of crab reached 12,834,562 tonnes or 93,368,978 USD,” Kardani said.

The performance increases from the previous year, which is only 9.6 million tonnes or about 59 million USD. The crab export, he said, was usually in the form of canned meat. Due to the high demand and limited supply, the price is very high, around 100,000-200,000 IDR per kilogram.

To boost the production, the department is ready to seek efficient technology. Even, some cultivators have already applied the mutation technology for soft carapace, a soft-shell crab.

“We also have some initiatives to develop the nursery in certain places because crab is an animal which hardly lives in some places. They usually live in mangrove,” he said.

He is optimist that East Java can give big contribution for national crab in the future even though its contribution for the export is still low, which is in 20 percent of national export. “We hope East Java resident can decrease their consumption on spawned crab because it threatens the life of crab in the future,” he said.

Though, several regions in East Java have already conducted crab nursery, such as in Situbondo and Probolinggo. The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries this year nationally targets the crab export should reach 262 billion USD or increase 3.76 percent compared to previous year.

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