REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Cultured fish business is gaining attention as it is believed to become a mainstay in the future, noted Secretary General of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Sjarif Widjaja.

"The cultured fish sector will become a mainstay in the future, although many have cast doubts about cultured fish cultivation in the past," the director general stated here on Wednesday.

Widjaja pointed out that fish had gained recognition as a main food item, which supported national food resilience and encouraged regional economic development.

"In the past, we always discussed rice, sugar, soybean, meat, and cooking oil when we met the chief economic ministers. Since 2013, fish has also featured in our discussions," Sjarif explained.

He added that people have started paying attention to the fish species of Bandeng (milk fish), tuna, and mackerel.

"After 65 years of independence, fish is now being recognized as a food item whose inflationary impact has also begun to be accounted for, which has now reached 0.14 percent," Sjarif reiterated.

In the meantime, the Indonesian Traditional Fishermen Association (KNTI) has urged the government to increase the quality and quantity of domestic fishery products to improve the welfare of traditional fishermen.

"In 2008, the processing sector contributed 40 percent to the total national production. Now, it only contributes some 20 to 30 percent," Chief Patron of KNTI M. Riza Damanik stated last Thursday.

Indonesia needs to reinforce its fish processing sector by increasing its processed fish production and the number of workers employed in fish processing businesses.

The number of workers in the fish processing sector was only about 10 percent of the fishery sector, while 54 percent and 36 percent others were respectively in the production and other sectors, Riza Damanik remarked.

The lack of focus on the processing sector has caused Indonesia's fishery performance to lag behind those of other ASEAN members such as Thailand and Vietnam.

In the face of the ASEAN Economic Community, there is a need for Indonesia to build some 10 thousand village-based fish processing units, Riza Damanik believed.

Of the 13.8 million people working in the fishery sector, only about 10 percent worked in fish processing units. This fact indicated stagnation in fishery development across downstream areas, he added.

So, in the future, the government will need at least 10 thousand fish processing units based in villages, he reiterated.

The value of Indonesia's fish exports cannot yet exceed that of Thailand and Vietnam. This data is based on the ASEAN Statistical Year Book 2012, claimed Riza, who is also the executive director of Indonesia for Global Justice (IGJ).

He pointed out that Indonesia can even become dependent on fish imported from other neighboring countries.

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