Director General of Aquaculture Fisheries at the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, Tb Haeru Rahayu, here on Wednesday, lauded the efforts made by the regional government in developing the seaweed industry in South Sulawesi.
Rahayu spoke of having observed the bustling activity of the aquaculture community, which was an indicator that the aquaculture sub-sector, particularly seaweed, was promising. Presently, the current selling price from cultivators reached Rp33 thousand per kilogram.
Despite the good disposition, they must not become complacent, he cautioned.
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Rahayu expected that they could improve their cultivation business through efforts, such as by conducting comparative studies on other cultivation locations in order to gain knowledge and apply it in South Sulawesi, especially in Takalar District.
Rahayu urged the regional government and the public to ensure that all business segments were utilized or optimized. Since, dried seaweed was currently the main commodity, there must be added value from the downstreaming process.
According to data from the Takalar Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Office, Laikang Village has 10 thousand hectares of area that could be potentially used for cultivation and approximately 3,773 hectares of areas where cultivation took place.
Seaweed cultivation production in Laikang Village in 2021 had reached 195,399.03 tons, which made up about 32 percent of the total seaweed production in the district.
Head of the South Sulawesi Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Office Sulkaf S. Latief stated that South Sulawesi was one of the largest contributors to national aquaculture. Moreover, South Sulawesi was the best producer of shrimp and seaweed commodities, he added.
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Takalar District, in particular, was the best producer of the Eucheuma cottonii type of seaweed, Latief stated.
Thus, he deemed it right for the ministry to establish a seaweed farming fishing village in South Sulawesi, especially in Takalar District.
Head of the Takalar Brackish Water Cultivation Fisheries Center (BPBAP), Nur Muflich Juniyanto, stated that in terms of upstream, the issue was the availability of good seaweed seeds on a regular basis.
Juniyanto noted that their administration continued to expedite efforts to develop technology to increase the production of seaweed seedlings through tissue culture methods and spores for which the results had begun to be disseminated to the public.
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Translator: M Razi Rahman, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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