Rajungan is found mainly in the sea off the coasts of Java and Sumatra.Jepara, Central Java (ANTARA News) - Blue Swimming Crab, locally known as rajungan, contributes US$260 million to Indonesia`s total earning from fishery exports a year, the Indonesian Association of Rajungan Breeding Companies (APRI) said.
Currently Rajungan is the country`s third largest export earner among fishery products after shrimp and tuna fish, APRI executive director Arie Prabawa said here on Monday.
Arie said breeding of rajungan commercially began in the country in the 1990s.
The business flourished over the past years and now exports average 30,000 tons valued at more than US$200 million a year, he said.
Rajungan is found mainly in the sea off the coasts of Java and Sumatra.
Around 65,000 fishermen caught rajungan fish using gillnet and bottom trawl, Arie said.
Arie said processed rajungan fish is high in demand in the US market and demand is growing from year to year.
The fishery and maritime ministry has said a number of US rajungan fish processing companies are studying plan to move operations to Indonesia.
"Phillips Seafood (a US investor) wants to build a rajungan fish canning plant in Indonesia," Fishery Processing and Marketing Director General Saut Hutagalung said earlier .
Meanwhile, rajungan fish catch in a number of fishing grounds is declining with more extensive fishing, Arie noted.
In order to preserve the fish species and maintain sustainability of production, APRI was established in 2007 to regulate sustained yield, he said.
Currently companies joining APRI include PT Phillips Seafoods Indonesia, PT Kelola Mina Laut, PT Tonga Tiur Putra, PT Bumi Menara Industri Blue Star Handys, PT Rex Canning, PT Toba Surimi
Industri, PT Kemila Bintang Timur, and PT Windika Utama.
(Uu.AS/H-ASG/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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