Makassar, S Sulawesi (Antaranews Sulsel) - The South Sulawesi Marine and Fisheries Service said it has arranged a meeting between Chinese business people and local seaweed farmers grouped in the Indonesian Association of Seaweed (ARLI) to discuss promotion of exports of that commodity from the region.
Head of the provincial Marine and Fisheries Service S Latif said here on Tuesday in fact the meeting already took place last month in this South Sulawesi capital city.
Latif gave no details of the result of the meeting but he did say that ARLI agreed to revitalize seaweed processing industry in the region by building new factories.
He said the provincial administration would support the plan, adding South Sulawesi needs more factories to process large seaweed production in the province.
South Sulawesi already has a number of seaweed processing plants located in a number of areas , but the processing capacity of the existing factory is not enough for the large supply of raw seaweed in the region.
Latif said seaweed dominated exports of commodities in containers accounting for 70 percent of its total exports of commodities in containers in 2017.
Exports of seaweed rose from South Sulawesi in 2017 when the price was good in international market, he said.
"Everyday , there are shipments of seaweed in containers to international market from South Sulawesi. Sea weed containers make up around 70 percent of the total exports of containers with fish and other commodities accounting for the rest," he said.
He noted fish production from South Sulawesi dropped lately probably because more fishermen became more interested in cultivating and producing seaweed.
Indonesia is the world`s largest seaweed producers but most of the production is exported mainly to China, where the commodity is processed further into finished food products.
Earlier the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) said Indonesia should lead development of seaweed processing industry
Kadin`s Vice Chairman of Marine and Fishery Affairs Yugi Prayanto said the country`s seaweed industry needs modernization, therefore, research is needed.
The country should fully utilize the availability in abundance of the raw material to produce goods with higher added value.
The country was once worried by the U.S. government plan to scrap seaweed from its list of food products, but the delisting plan was cancelled later.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), through the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), had issued a document stating that carrageen remain on the list of organic products to be effective on May 29, 2018.
ARLI has also said seaweed could be exported again to the United States after the delisting decision is revoked. (AS).
