A Preliminary Study On Economic Aspects Of Mollusk Fishery In Indonesia

Mollusks are an important, wholesome and nutritious food for diet people. Therefore,there is a growing demand for mollusk products in the global market. Furthermore,mollusks serve as a universal indicator for the environmental health.Considering Indonesia is abundant in various mollusk species, which can be ofcommercial importance and has significant roles in the marine ecosystem, Indonesiashould be able to further develop mollusk products which are in high demand worldwide.This study attempts to examine the economic aspects of mollusk fishery from Indonesianwaters. The general objective of this study are (1) to examine the current condition ofmollusk fishery belonging to Indonesian waters;(2) to explore the prospects of theIndonesian mollusk fishery for national economy; and (3) to investigates the comparativeadvantage of Indonesia’s mollusk exports in the world fishery markets. An extensiveliterature review and personal interviews with two experts in Indonesia was used tocollect the data of this study. Descriptive analysis is identified as a tool to achieve the firstand the second’s objective of this study. While the Balassa index is selected to gain thethird objective of this study.The results showed Indonesian production of mollusks tend to increase in most yearsbut fluctuated in some individual years during the last60years or so. Additionally, therehas been a decrease-moving in the production growth rates of mollusks in every20-yearperiod from1950to2011, with the average growth rate in the period from1950to1969is47.78%, then after that period mollusk production is decreasing,22.02%(1970-1989) and11.35%(1990-2011). It was also found that Indonesia trade in mollusk products grewsignificantly; rising from US$803thousand in1976to US$8,249thousand in2009, withthe highest mollusk value at US$18,673thousand in2006, with the major molluskproduct is miscellaneous molluscs in terms of both quantity and value during1976-2009.The results of the RCA also showed that Indonesia has no comparative advantage in the exporting of mollusks, though the quantity exported has risen significantly (520tons in1975compared to1,035tons in2009). The reasons that might have caused nocomparative advantage in Indonesia mollusk exports are briefly discussed. There are twokinds of constraints faced by Indonesian mollusk fishery that relate to export activity:Internal and external constraints. Internal constraints occur due to the lack of facility andtechnology to develop mollusk products. While the external constraints relate to tariffbarriers and non-tariff barriers such as the issue of standard mollusk products required bythe global market and “non-trade concers” which are environmental issues, human rights,animal welfare, etc. Hence, the paper has suggested the government and otherstakeholders had better to give more serious attention to the developing mollusks andmanage mollusks into tangible economic assets. It is because mollusks can be animportant component of future national income.