Indonesia to increase shrimp export to China

 

 

Indonesian fish exporters have been trying to increase shrimp exports to China aside from maintaining exports to the US, Japan and EU.

 

Thomas Darmawan, Chairman of the Indonesian Association of Fish Product Processing and Marketing Companies (AP5I) said Thursday (Sep 22) that opportunities of fish exports to China are still very wide.

 

"When we were making a MoU with fish businesses there last year, they said they needed one million tonnes of fish and shrimp from here," he said.

 

He said that Indonesia's shrimp exports to China alone reached only 50,000 tonnes last year, thus, the opportunity for exports to China is still very big. It only depends on how they are going to boost production to increase shrimp exports there.

 

Thomas said Indonesia's shrimp production reached an average of 350,000 tonnes per year, and this year, it is expected to increase to 400,000 tonnes per year.

 

Some of the shrimps being bred and caught at sea had been exported to various countries, especially the US, Japan and the EU.

 

In 2010, shrimp exports to the US reached 61,095 tonnes, to Japan 32,185 tonnes and to the EU 12,191 tonnes.

 

In the January-July 2011 period, the export of the commodity to the US reached 40,856 tonnes, 15% higher than the same period last year.

 

The shrimp exports to the EU also increased from 4,508 tonnes in the January-May 2010 period to 4,514 tonnes this year.

 

The shrimp exports to Japan dropped slightly from 13,374 tonnes in the January-June 2010 period to 12,558 tonnes this year.

 

Thomas said it was because the country's demands had been declining following the tsunami in March 2011.