October 29, 2007

Shrimp exports in Indonesia's Lampung province falls 37 percent

Although officials did not say the cause, stricter import rules and import quotas are expected to be the main cause of the decline.

Indonesia's Lampung province exports 60 percent of its fishery products to the US, Canada and Brazil.

The exported fishery products are frozen shrimp, fresh fish, processed fish, canned snails and seaweed, head of the Lampung provincial maritime and fishery office, Untung Sugiyanto, said last week.

Asia accounts for a quarter of its fishery products while the EU accounted for 12.4 percent. Australia and New Zealand made up 1 percent.

Lampung's shrimp exports to the EU, US and Japan in the first seven months of the year amounted to US$104.367 million. This is down from 37 percent from US$165.8 million in 2006.

The volume of the province's shrimp exports during the period was recorded at 17,800 tonnes, down35 percent from the 27,428 tonnes in 2006.

Four companies - Central Pertiwi Bahari, Dipasena, Indocom Samudra Persada and Philips Seafood Indonesia accounted for most of the production in Lampung, he said.