Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesian Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Sakti Wahyu Trenggono has highlighted the country’s vast blue food potential as a key contributor to global food security, particularly through the development of sustainable aquaculture.
Indonesia’s blue food production — covering capture fisheries, aquaculture and seaweed — reaches at least 24 million tonnes per year, Trenggono said while delivering a public lecture at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta recently.
To ensure the sustainability of wild fish populations, the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries is working to increase production, especially from the aquaculture sector, Trenggono said, noting that Indonesia’s current aquaculture output averages around 5.6 million tonnes annually.
Indonesia has nearly 18 million hectares of land suitable for aquaculture, but only about 1.2 million hectares have been utilised.
The minister said that modern farming models have been developed for several commodities, including saline tilapia in Karawang.
The initiative in Karawang has been expanded into a broader pond revitalisation programme for saline tilapia farming, with its initial phase covering 20,000 hectares in West Java. It is projected to produce about 1.56 million tonnes of saline tilapia per year, thanks to the application of modern farming technologies that can raise productivity from 0.6 tonnes to 130 tonnes per hectare per cycle.
Regarding market prospects, Trenggono expressed optimism, citing the world’s growing demand for protein. He identified the Middle East as a promising export destination due to its high tilapia consumption and the presence of a large Indonesian diaspora.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the global population is expected to increase by more than 30% by 2050, driving protein demand up by as much as 70%./.
