Indramayu fish catch improves but price down
Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post, Indramayu
Attention seafood lovers: Increased catches along West Java's northern coast have made fish prices in Indramayu some of the cheapest in the country, but the oversupply is making life tough for fishing families.
"The increased catches will certainly influence fish prices. The price of fish has already dropped sharply," said Kasiba, 52, the head of the Mina Sumitra Village Cooperative Unit (KUD) in Karang Song, Indramayu.
The Mina Ulaban, Singaraja, KUD manager, Sukarya, 46, said seafood prices had begun to drop at the end of March. "The price of fish was quite good previously. But it tends to drop starting (this time of year)," he said.
The price of the main catches like tuna has more than halved, with the fish only fetching Rp 4,000 (44 U.S. cents) a kilogram, from Rp 9,000 per kg earlier this year. A smaller fish, kembung has dropped in price, from Rp 6,000 to Rp 6,500 a kg previously, to a year-low of Rp 3,000 to Rp 4,000, with teri nasi, similarly reduced from between Rp 15,000 and Rp 16,000 a kg to only about Rp 7,000 to Rp 8,000.
"The (seasonal) drop in fish prices has definitely affected fishermen's incomes, after having earlier suffered fuel price hikes earlier," Sukarya said.
Recent Indramayu Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Office data shows that taking into affect the increases in the past month the catches by Indramayu fishermen for the 2004-2005 period has already increased by 17 percent this year to 27,000 tons from 23,000 in the same period in 2003-2004.
The increase is primarily caused by better conditions; the prevailing seasonal westerly winds that cause high tides, less fish and choppier seas have now abated. "It's now the easterly season when sea conditions are more friendly. Fishermen have set out to sea like in normal times," Kasiba said.
Kasiba says an average of 10 to 15 large fishing boats weighing from 20 to 28 gross tons dock daily at the Karang Song Fish Trading Center (PPI), the biggest market in Indramayu.
"The number has increased compared earlier to only three to four boats per day. There are also some 100 smaller fishing vessels docking in Karang Song now," said Kasiba.
Meanwhile, fisheries office head Abdul Rosad Hakim, said that in spite of the increase in catches, the figure was still far from the regency's potential figure of 61,000 tons a year.
According to Abdul, with a coast spanning 114 kilometers, the longest in West Java and 30,000 fishing families, the area had the potential of becoming one of the biggest fishing centers in the country, especially now that there were more distribution markets than before -- the PPIs in Indramayu city; the Karang Song PPI in Indramayu district, the Dadap PPI in Juntinyuat and the Eretan PPI.
Most of the area's fishing families 15,000, are concentrated in Dadap, followed by Karangsong with 10,000 and Eretan with 5,000.