Indonesia’s trawl ban will raise prices of wild shrimp on the Japanese market from September, according to an importer of Indian shrimp speaking at last week’s Japan International Seafood & Technology Expo, held at Tokyo Big Sight. Visitors to his booth were looking for new sources for wild shrimp, mainly flower shrimp.
“Buyers only want to see flower—nobody’s interested in vannamei,” he said,
India is in a good position to fill the void, as wild shrimp stocks in Indian waters have improved after previously declining under strong fishing pressure.
Flower shrimp, (Penaeus semisulcatus), also known as “green tiger shrimp,” “hana-ebi,” “kuma-ebi,” and “ashiaka-ebi” have slightly nutty or earthy taste and springy mouthfeel compared with vannamei. While not a subject of great interest at the show, farmed vannamei prices have recovered slightly following a recent glut caused by recovering Thai production.
Indonesia’s trawl ban is not new legislation, but rather the enforcement of a long-standing and long-ignored presidential decree. The original decree was introduced in limited areas in 1980 and extended nationwide in 1981. It was a response to growing conflicts between artisanal fishermen and commercial trawlers who were competing for the same declining resource in an open fishery, with occasional violence. There was also an ethnic element, as the capital intensive trawlers were often owned by Chinese immigrants, while the artisanal fishery was native. Continuing violence at that time had the potential to widen to nationwide ethnic riots.
The ban had generally good effects, increasing employment in the industry and relieving some of the overfishing pressure, though it tended to make movement of product harder as small operators fished out of many local ports, while trawlers had been based in a few major ports. However, with changes of administration, the decree was gradually ignored, so that trawling is again a main method of shrimp fishing.
Current conditions are somewhat different, as it is now foreign-owned trawlers, rather than those of Chinese-Indonesians, that are among the particular targets of the ban. There is also now mixed opinion among ethnic Indonesians, as many small local craft have been converted into improvised trawlers. Owners of these would like to see only large trawlers banned.
The outcry from fishermen about the loss of their investment in equipment has resulted in a transitional period for new trawl and seine net regulations. Previously, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti issued a regulation banning the use of trawl and seine nets from January 9, 2015. This has been delayed until September. The ministerial regulation is in force for those whose usage permits for the equipment have expired, but for those whose permits are still active, it is allowed until September.
In the 11 Indonesian Fishery Management Areas, there are 19,544 permits issued to use trawl nets and 80,633 for seine nets.
Minister Pudjiastuti has kept open the possibility of resuming use of such nets if more environmentally friendly gear can be used, but fishermen complain that new equipment will cost too much and it will take more time for them to adjust. Besides cutting shrimp harvests, the ban also will affect itoyori surimi supply from Indonesia.
Yet, despite the conflict, a public opinion survey carried out in mid-2015 ranked Pudjiastuti as the administration’s best performing minister, and the fisheries sector in the country grew 8.6 percent in the first quarter of this year, outperforming the national growth rate of 4.7 percent.
