March 22, 2011

Indonesia's tuna shipments to Japan drop 50%

Indonesia's tuna exports to Japan's capital, Tokyo, fell almost 50% after the disastrous earthquake and tsunami which ravaged the eastern coast of the country last March 11, 2011.

"Our (tuna) exports to Japan dropped by around 50%," the marine affairs and fisheries ministry's director general fishery product marketing and management, Victor Nikijuluw, said Monday (Mar 21).

Indonesia usually exported 300 tonnes of tuna per week to Tokyo, but last the export volume was just 150 tonnes, he said.

The country exports big eye and swordfish tuna to Tokyo.

Meanwhile, tuna exports to Nagoya and Osaka run normally because the two regions are not affected by the natural disaster.

"Exports to Nagoya and Osaka are not affected," he said.

Earlier the ministry's secretary general, Gellwyn Jusuf, had said that the Japan earthquake and subsequent tsunami had affected Indonesia's fishery products exports to Japan, especially tuna and shrimp.

The shrimp exports to Japan in the future might reach only one third of the usual shrimp export volume, he said last Thursday.

Indonesia would look for alternative countries of destination such as the EU, the US and China, as their demands for shrimp have increased, he said.