Presidential Instruction Number 7 of 2016 concerning the Acceleration of National Fisheries Industry Development has mandated 25 Ministries and Institutions to take the necessary strategic steps to support efforts to accelerate the development of the national fisheries industry. One of the steps mandated in the Presidential Instruction is increasing the production of capture fisheries, cultivation and processing of fisheries products.
PATIN is one of Indonesia's mainstay commodities as an industrial commodity, because it has established itself in terms of seeds, rearing, feed, and processing as well as the vast area of cultivation production in cultivation centers including Jambi, Palembang, Riau, Lampung, South Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan.
The opportunity for the patin industry for local consumption is very wide open with the policy of banning patin imports by the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries. In addition, the high food safety requirements that will be set by the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries through the Indonesian National Standard (SNI) are an opportunity for local patin to dominate the market.
The opportunity for local patin to dominate the international market has been wide open. The need for patin abroad shows a positive trend, such as in China. Patin imports in the bamboo curtain country have grown rapidly to reach 34.400 tons per year.
The figure is followed by Thailand which reaches 19.200 tons per year. In Latin America, imports of patin fish also showed an increase of up to 12,3 percent. The increasing need for patin in several countries is a public awareness in meeting nutrition and protein. This can also be an opportunity for Indonesia to globalize local patin.
After the implementation of the patin import protection policy, the Indonesian patin industry has shown encouraging developments. In 2016, national patin production was 437.111 tons. A significant increase from the previous year, which was 339.069 tons. In 2018, the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries is targeting patin production of 604.587 tons. In domestic market demand, the per capita consumption of patin fish tends to increase each year, reaching 21,9% from 2014 to 2017 with a preference for products consumed as fresh fish of 76%, foreign fish preserved 15%.
Patin production centers in Indonesia are available. In this case, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) continues to monitor and encourage national patin production. The Sumatra region contributes 68,07 percent of national production, with details of the South Sumatra region being the largest contributor, reaching 47,23 percent. This certainly shows a positive trend along with domestic and international market demand.
In encouraging local patin production and introducing it to the wider community, especially fisheries business actors, the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries held a Marine Business Forum entitled “Patin Industry: Opportunities and Challenges” on Wednesday, April 11, 2018. To roll out the Patin business into a stable, certain and sustainable industry, certainty of market and supply chains is needed.
The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries has made a number of efforts to drive the patin industry from upstream to downstream, including seed assistance, independent feed programs, provision of superior national patin broodstock, namely patin jambal and patin pasupati (Patin Super Harapan Pertiwi) which have been released with the Decree of the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries No. 25/2006, preparation of SNI Patin Fillet, and collaboration with the SMART-Fish Indonesia Program supported by SECO-UNIDO to build a mobile app to expand information on good patin cultivation that can meet health and food safety standards, and formulate patin branding.
The application is a collaboration between the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, funded by the Swiss Government (SECO). This application was created to help catfish and seaweed farmers improve production and quality, so that the harvest results are more profitable.
Not only that, the Government also facilitates financing in the form of People's Business Credit (KUR) support in the patin commodity business. In the event, assistance was also handed over in the form of Bank Jatim credit to Patin Cultivators, Dagulir credit from the East Java Provincial Government in collaboration with Bank Jatim to 22 debtors from 14 patin fish farming groups in Tulungagung Regency, East Java, amounting to Rp 7 billion. (Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries together with the Government Communication Team (Kemkominfo)
