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Minister Casts His Nets at Rising Appetite for Seaweed
February 27, 2011

The government is looking to increase seaweed production to capitalize on high global demand. (AFP Photo) The government is looking to increase seaweed production to capitalize on high global demand. (AFP Photo)
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Despite surging global demand, the country’s seaweed production is stuck at about three million tons a year, the minister of maritime affairs and fisheries has revealed.

“We have been overwhelmed by demand for seaweed from many places,” Fadel Muhammad said while opening a seaweed depot in Parigi Moutong, Central Sulawesi, on Saturday. “Global demand has now reached 10 million tons a year.”

The minister said the Philippines dominated seaweed production several years ago with its output on average reaching two million tons a year. But now Indonesia has taken over as the region’s main producer, with annual output at three million tons of kelp, up from 2.64 million tons in 2009.

But Fadel said there was more scope to boost production to capitalize on high global demand, which would in turn not only benefit Indonesian fishermen but the economy as a whole. “We will lose out if we don’t take advantage,” he said.

The ministry earlier this month announced it had developed 60 new seaweed cultivation clusters to help meet a production target of 10 million tons by 2014. It also said it aimed to increase the value of the country’s seaweed by processing it into several derivative products before export.

Fadel said his ministry was now in the process of urging President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to back the industry.

“I am just persuading the president to issue an instruction on seaweed farming,” he said.

“I am convinced that if there is a presidential instruction, the budget will be increased.”

North Sulawesi, Maluku, East Nusa Tenggara, Central Sulawesi and Gorontalo provinces are considered to be key to developing the country’s seaweed industry, according to the ministry’s director general of fisheries, Ketut Sugama. Citing a study conducted by the World Bank, Fadel said the best seaweed came from waters off Sulawesi Island.

During his visit to Parigi Moutong, Fadel also granted Rp 300 million ($34,000) in aid to local seaweed farmers. “If it is still not enough, tell the local government, who will then report it to me,” he said.

Before being appointed fisheries minister in 2009, Fadel was the sitting governor of Gorontalo, a seaweed producing province that borders Central Sulawesi.

Antara