KKP: Indonesia's Fishery Export Surplus Reaches 3.87 Billion US Dollars Until September 2024

The Director General of Strengthening the Competitiveness of Marine Products and Fisheries of the KKP, Budi Sulistiyo (doc. KKP).

The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) noted that the trade balance surplus for fishery commodities for the January-September 2024 period reached 3.87 billion US dollars.

The export performance rate for fishery products increased by 7.2 percent compared to the same period the previous year.

"With a bigger trade surplus, Indonesia has managed to maintain its position as a net exporter of fishery products."

"Of course this is a gift from the 25th anniversary of the KKP, hopefully it will make a significant contribution to the national economy," said Director General of Strengthening Competitiveness for Marine Products and Fisheries of the KKP, Budi Sulistiyo, in a written statement, Saturday, October 26, 2024.

Budi said the export value of Indonesian fishery products until September 2024 reached 4.23 billion US dollars with a total export volume of 1.02 million tons. This export value increased by 3.1 percent compared to the same period in 2023.

Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), a significant increase occurred in August 2024. In that month, the volume of exports increased by 34.2 percent and the nila grew by 10.7 percent compared to the same month in the previous year.

He added that this increase is a positive marker for the performance of national fishery exports. The United States remains the main market for Indonesian fishery products with an export value of US$1.38 billion or 32.6 percent of total fishery exports.

"The good news is that the export market to other countries has increased," he said.

It is known that fishery exports to China experienced a growth of 7.8 percent and ASEAN countries increased by 18.7 percent.

Budi emphasized that countries in Southeast Asia (ASEAN) and the European Union became important markets considering that each contributed US$569.75 million (13.5 percent) and US$309.41 million (7.3 percent) to the total export of Indonesian fishery products.

In fact, said Budi, the largest increase was seen in exports to the European Union which grew by 23.3 percent compared to the same period the previous year.

"This shows great potential for the European market which can continue to be maximized by Indonesian fisheries business actors," said Budi.

The main fishery products in this period consisted of several leading commodities, such as shrimp which became the largest export commodity with a value of US$1.18 billion or 28.1 percent of the total exports of Indonesian fishery products.

In addition, other commodities such as tuna-cacalang-tongkol (TCT) and squid (CSG) have increased significantly, each growing 7.9 percent and 24.7 percent.

According to him, an increase of 40.4 percent occurred in the exports of stalls which also contributed positively to the growth of the overall export value.

"The increase in CSG exports was mainly driven by strong demand from China and ASEAN," he said.