Helping The MSMEs To Reduce Production Costs, The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Handed Over 50 Tons Of Cold Storage

Cold storage illustration. (Photo: By courtesy)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) has distributed cold storage assistance with a capacity of 50 tons for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that process pindang fish in Pasuruan Regency, East Java.

Director-General for Strengthening Product Competitiveness of KKP, Artati Widiarti, said that all this time fishers kept raw materials in private facilities at a cost of IDR 2.500 to IDR 5.000 per kilogram.

As a result, businessmen often experience losses, both from product damage due to not selling immediately or during bad weather, the supply of raw materials is reduced and there is a minimum supply of raw materials.

"This is, of course, ineffective and affects production costs due to the high cost of renting cold storage and transportation", he said in a statement Monday, March 29.

For this reason, Artati hopes that this assistance can reduce production costs because the raw materials are stored in the group's frozen warehouse and close to the storage center.

"We certainly want their business consistency and sustainability to be maintained", he added.

On the same occasion, the Head of the Pasuruan Fish Processing and Marketer Group (Poklahsar) Ridwan said that the frozen warehouse assistance from the KKP was very useful.

In fact, he admitted that fisheries businessmen ranging from fishermen, marketing groups, fish processors, owners of transportation modes and other consumers involved in this business chain directly felt the benefits of this assistance.

"Because the smooth running of the processing business is more secure after receiving frozen warehouse assistance", he said.

Ridwan added that the frozen warehouse assistance was used to store fish as raw material for the brackets, both for the needs of group members and other fishermen in the surrounding area.

"We are very much helped, in terms of efficiency and ensuring the availability of raw materials as well as absorbing the catch of fishermen when the fish is abundant", said Ridwan.

For information, Pasuruan Regency is one of the main areas for fish ponds in East Java Province. Currently, there are 15 large-scale fishermen with total production reaching 14.375 kilograms per day.