Norway Helps Indonesia Develop Fisheries

TheJakartaPost reports that the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry will team up with the Nordic country that is the worlds second-largest fish producer to net 22.39 million tons of national fishery production by 2015.

The target would be a significant jump from the 14.87 million tons set for next year. The ministry estimates that production could reach 12.3 million tons in 2011, up from 11.2 million tons in 2010.

Minister Fadel Muhammad said Norway was also chosen for its advanced technology, marking Indonesias seriousness about develop aquaculture technology, especially since he changed fishery orientation from fishing to aquaculture shortly after being inaugurated in October 2009.

Aquaculture is the most realistic and viable way to have sustainable fish production in the future, he said in Jakarta on Tuesday at a seminar involving Norwegian fish farming firms, research institutions and government representatives showcasing new aquaculture technology.

The goal is to provide a platform where experts from the Indonesian fishing industry can share knowledge and experience with their Norwegian counterparts, Norwegian Ambassador to Jakarta Eivind S. Homme said in the seminars opening remarks.

Indonesian Ambassador to Oslo, Esti Andayani, said Indonesia would benefit from the collaboration because the country would not spend a huge amount of money for the new technology.

Normally, collaboration with other European countries such as France or the UK would cost a lot, she said, adding that Norways involvement also assured locals of participation, which helped the governments plan to reduce national poverty.

The ministrys aquaculture director general Ketut Sugama said that the new technology would promise genetic improvement, feeding systems and disease prevention and could be applied at offshore areas in Lombok, as Indonesia has yet to fully develop its potential there.

Genetic improvement allows a fish to gain one kilogram in six months instead of a year, which is what we have at present, Ketut Sugama said.

Faster growth would result in faster production and larger export trade, he added.

Laurent Genet, Southeast Asia representative of animal nutrition and fish feed maker Nutreco, said that his firms food efficiency system would reduce the food consumption of salmon from 3.5 kg to 1.1 kg of small fish such as sardines.

We could propose our system for salt water fish in Indonesia as it applies well to salmon in Norway, he said.

He added that fresh water fish did not have to reduce food consumption because their food was already vegetable-based.

Ketut Sugama said that disease prevention technology would protect fish against necrosis virus infectionsa virus common among fish.

Bjrn Bilberg, chairman of the Norway-based fish farming pipe company Preline Fishfarming System AS, came to Indonesia on holiday. However, he also decided to see the potential for business expansion his company might have, after learning about the seminar.

He said that Indonesia was definitely a potential market, but he refused to say that a business partnership would happen in the near future.

It is too early to invest here because we just started promotions. We have not had any international clients. This is a sign that Norway is ready for a global market, he said.

He said that Indonesia was very different from Norway. Our country has enormous production with few employees while here enormous production means many employees to absorb, he said.

Mr Bilberg said his company offered pipe facilities to feed the fish. With pipes, no feed goes out. We can control fish, pipes, the speed of the water and its temperature, both in fresh water and salt water, he said.