December 4, 2008

Indonesia's seafood exports are expected to remain stable until early December 2008, said the Marine and Fisheries Minister, Freddy Numberi.

Numberi said that businessmen in the fishery sector were worried about a possible drop in the volume of their exports in the first quarter next year as no new contracts had been signed so far.

Overseas buyers were still honouring trade contracts they had signed before by not cancelling imports although they were facing liquidity problems due to the current global financial crisis, he said.

He said his office had tried to inform businessmen in the fishery sector about alternative markets they could possibly penetrate such as the Middle East.

Although there was fear that fishery exports would drop next year, Indonesia's shrimp production was rising. "We are now even overproducing. We hope the US market can still absorb our shrimps," he said.

Meanwhile, the shrimp exports to the US are seen to remain stable, said the director general of fishery development, Made Nurjanah.

Nurjanah said the contracts remained to be met and there had been no request for renegotiations of the price.

He also stated that importers had asked for a price cut because of decreasing demand in the US and therefore the size of the exported shrimps were smaller.

"In Indonesia when the size is changed for example from 60 to 50 centimetres the price will drop IDR200 (US$0.01) to IDR300 (US$0.02). So the price difference is not big," he said.