Yogyakarta eyeing export market for fresh fish

Yogyakarta (Antaranews Jogja) - Yogyakarta is known to be a major exporter of the products of creative industry such as batik, fashion products, furniture , handicraft and leather products.

Essential oils, cosmetics and perfumes are among main export commodities from Yogyakarta.

In addition, though not yet ranked among Yogyakarta`s export commodities fresh fish is no less potential to enter internatiomarket.

Fish products with export potential from Yogyakarta include tuna fish , skipjack, layur (richiurus lepturus) with a total catch of 3,000 tons per year on the average.

Most of the fish production has been exported via Surabay o East Java and Semarang of Central Java, to Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Former chairman of the Yogyakarta Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) Nur Ahmad Affandi said Yogyakarta has always been a major producer of "marine products". The water territory of Yogyakarta is deep and relatively clean making it a fertile ground for natural fish breeding.

The chief executive of PT Tarumartani even said the quality of tuna fish from Yogyakarta is not inferior to that of tuna fih fom South Korea .

However, exports of fresh fish could not yet be made directly from Yogyakarta as the special district has no fish processing facility with export standard. In order to secure export approval and license for fish processin uni also need certain standards.

Export Standard Fish Processing Units

Head of the Yogyakarta Fishery Office Bayu Mukti Sasongka said it is important for Yogyakarta to have Fish Processing Units. Aware of the potential, thakartonal administration plans to build fish processing units with international standards after the completion of the fish terminal in Tanjung Adikarto in the district of Kulon Progo .

Bayu said fish processing units with export scaleis needed cnsidering the big fishery potentials of the Yogyakarta`s waters territory. It is estimated only 1-2 percent of the fish potentials in the Yogyakarta sea territory have been exploited.

Based on data from the Regional Marine and Fiheries offic , in the first three quarters of 2018, Yogyakarta produced 4,613 tons of sea fish.

As Yogyakarta has no fish processing unit with international standards, fish from Yogyakarta is given the label of fish from other areas from which the fish is exported..

He said construction of fish processing unit has to be postponed until the operation of the Tanjung Adikarto fish terminal . A number of other conditions have to be met such as that the sea fish production of the region has to be enough to feed the processing unit .

He said currently Yogyakarta has tens of fish processing units operated by fishermen , but all of them are low in scale producing only fish nuggets, fish crackers, presto, and fish rolls for domesic consumption.

Bayu said he was confident that after the operation of the Tanjung Adikarto port, sea fish production would increase significantly estimated to reach up to 270,000 tons per year. Currently the sea fish production is less than 10,000 per year.

After the operation of Tanjung Adikarto port, big fishing ships measuring 10-30 gross tons (GT) or more could land in that area. Currently only small fishing vessels could land in that area.

The Tanjung Adikarto por is expected tobe operational only in 021 as construction s to start only i 2020. Feasibility study is to be carried out in 2019.



Support from New Yogyakarta International Airport (NYIA)

After the Tanjung Adikarto port and fish prcessing unit wit international standards are in operation exports of fresh fish from Yogyakarta is expected to increase sharply.

Exports would be backed up by the operation of the New Yogyakarta International Airport in Kulon Progo, which is to start operation in April 2019.

General Manager of state-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura 1 of Adisutjipto airport Agus Pandu Purnama said support for the export of fresh fish from Yogyakarta would be more concrete with the provision of wide area specially for cargoes.

Agus said Angkasa Pura plans to build a cargo village at the complex of new airport.

The cargo village will adopt a `one stop service`. At the `cargo village` one could send and receive export and ort goods with nome wasted .



Bank export credits

The representative office of Bank Indonesia (KPBI) in Yogyakarta encourage banks in that area to provide credit for export oriented companies including fishery companies. Fishery industryis potential to expad, therefore, it deserves banking support, head of the KPBI of Yogyakarta Budi Hanoto said.

Budi Hanoto said the government is interested in boosting exports to cope with current account deficit still besetting the country,s economy.

He said Yogyakarta has various potential export commodities including furniture, leather products and textiles and garments. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics Yogyakarta exports declined 6.41 percent in Septmber in value from te previous month , but cumulatively exports in the first nine months of the year rose 11.06 percent from the same period in 2017.