REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – The Minister of Trade Gita Wirjawan plans to barter Indonesian fish for Thai rice. Gita said Indonesia needed rice from Thailand, while Thailand needed fish from Indonesia. The plan had been proposed to the President, he said.

Yet, the Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Sharif Cicip Sutardjo, said the plan was still under discussion. “A report from FAO says Thailand imported a million tonnes of fish in 2010,” he said on Monday.

Yet, the data in the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries differs from the FAO report, since the amount reported in the ministry does not even reach a million. “It means that some is not registered so we negotiated with the Thai government to draft some new agreement in this issue,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Fisheries Justice Coalition Indonesia (KIARA) opposes to the plan. The Coordinator of KIARA, Riza Damanik, said the plan showed that Indonesian suffered food dependence while on the other side Indonesian demands on fish is also increasing due to the increasing domestic consumption. 

“The Indonesian volume of fish product has not reached at safe level and it can be seen from the increasing of fish import,” he said.

In 2010, Indonesia imported 300,000 tonnes fish. The number is increasing in 2011, which is 400,000 tonnes. He also said that the plan was not in accordance with self-sufficiency in food.

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