March 9, 2010

Indonesia shrimp farmers call for government intervention

A shrimp producers group is urging the Indonesian government to intervene in the market to help small-scale farmers struggling with low prices.

Nafian Faiz, general chairman of the Lampung branch of Tiger Shrimp Plasma Growers (P3UW), said the government should set a minimum price for shrimp and subsidise farmers when they were unable to receive the minimum price from buyers.

Large scale shrimp buyers control the prices paid to farmers, said Nafian, adding that the government should pay more attention to the continuously falling shrimp price. Shrimp prices paid to farmers have dropped from US$12.40 a kg in 2006 to around US$6.80 a kg now.

Riza Damanik, coordinator of the Fisheries Justice Coalition (Kiara), said domestic shrimp farmers had little bargaining power when dealing with large-scale buyers. He said producer and processor PT Central Proteinaprima bought around 70% of domestic shrimp produced and its dominant position contributed to low prices.

Riza also urged the government to improve environmental regulation of the shrimp farming industry. The uncontrolled expansion of shrimp farms was leading to too many farms, which damaged the environment and resulted in farmers having to spend more on drugs and vitamins for the shrimp, he said.

Shrimp farmers have also been hit by the rising cost of shrimp feed, which increased by about 25% in 2009.