Fisheries target to output 12 million tons

The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry plans to increase Indonesia’s fish production to 12.26 million tons this year from 10.83 million tons last year, with aquaculture expected to contribute 6.85 million tons.

“We plan to make Indonesia the world’s leading fish producer by 2015, and have thus targeted fantastic fish production levels every year,” Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad said Wednesday as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Fadel was optimistic with the current target, as fish production from 2006 to 2010 had grown by 9.68 percent.

“With aquaculture sector spearheading the fisheries sector, our fish production has surpassed our initial target of 10.76 million tons [in 2010],” he said.

As of the third quarter of 2010, fish production contributed 3.14 percent or Rp 148.16 trillion (US$16.4 billion) to the national gross domestic product, he added.

This year, fisheries are expected to contribute a further 3.5 percent to GDP.