T

he Global Maritime Axis seems to be a realistic dream for Indonesia ever since President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo came into power. Mainstream opinions believe that developing the maritime sectors is the key to boosting Indonesia’s economy, as a lot of potential in our waters remains untapped.

Yet, these opinions sometimes disregard the current state of industrial development, which may be the biggest stumbling block in realizing the dream. The fisheries sector is one of the most interesting examples for looking at whether the correct and necessary actions have been taken to catch up with the current development era.

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti has set a target for the fisheries sector to contribute 7 percent of gross domestic product in 2015-2019. Hopefully, this will pave the way for Indonesia to become the Global Maritime Axis.

The fisheries sector has actually been friendly toward advanced technologies for several years. In capture fishery, Indonesia has collaborated with Google since 2016 on its vessel monitoring system (VMS) under the Global Fishing Watch digital platform. The cooperation requires Indonesia to share data on operational fishing vessels in 11 Fisheries Management Areas (FMA) while it allows Indonesia to detect illegal fishing vessels entering its territory at the same time.

In 2017, Indonesia also started cooperating on developing a maritime satellite for monitoring illegal fishers with two well-known foreign institutions, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and International Maritime Satellite (Inmarsat) through its partnership with the United Kingdom Space Agency.

While Inmarsat has invested 8 million euros (US$9.19 million) in the project, JICA is apparently still waiting for the results of a feasibility study.

With the ability to intercept illegal fishing vessels thanks to these partnerships, Indonesia successfully enhanced the productivity of its capture fisheries from 6.54 million tons in 2016 to 7.67 million tons in 2017.

Aquaculture in Indonesia is also showing some fascinating progress. Two examples are worthy of mention.

One, the government is running a technological project called Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS). This technology allows intensive aquaculture through continuous water circulation. It is highly efficient, as it harnesses only a small amount of water in a limited space. According to environmental news site Mongabay, the technology may increase production from 50 fish per cubic meter using conventional methods to 5,000 fish per cubic meter.

Two, the fisheries ministry is supporting the growth of e-commerce-based aquaculture. This will enable Indonesian aquaculture products to be marketed on e-commerce platforms like Blibli.com and Tokopedia. This advancement significantly cuts the distribution chain to make prices more affordable.

Prior to the aforementioned innovations, aquaculture production had increased from 15.63 million tons in 2015 to 17.22 million tons in 2017.

This adoption of technology in both the fisheries and aquaculture sectors presents a positive trend amid Industry 4.0, which highlights four core features: Integration of digital and physical systems, the internet of things (IoT), big data analytics, robotics and artificial intelligence.

Industry 4.0 intends to transform industries — the fishery sector in this context — into smart factories with horizontal and vertical integration.

While horizontal integration means digitizing the complete value and supply chain with interconnected information systems and exchange of data at centerstage, vertical integration focuse on integrating IT systems at various hierarchical levels of production, from the field to the level of enterprise planning. In paying attention to these types of integration, however, we should not overlook the current positive trends.

Indonesia has not thoroughly gotten on board the “Industry 4.0” wave. It is still concentrating its efforts on securing the quantity of fisheries and aquaculture products, rather than improving the quality of those products. In 2015, Russia protested Indonesia over its exported tuna due to their high concentration of mercury.

Mexico also froze import licenses for Indonesia’s vannamei shrimp in 2016, following the discovery of infectious myonecrosis virus (IMNV) in the products. The United States also rejected contaminated Indonesian tuna 29 times in the first semester of 2017 and prevented the entry of shrimp from East Java’s PT Bumi Menara Internusa over salmonella.

Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) recalled 27 foreign and local brands of canned mackerel earlier this year, after some products were found to contain parasitic worms, which dealt a heavy blow on the industry.

These cases obviously demand our fullest attention on improving the quality of national seafood products using all available advanced technologies.

Another essential reason for improving the quality of fish processing is Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministerial Regulation No. 57/2014 on transshipments. This regulation is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it contributes positively to our fight against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, as it bans captured fish transshipments by foreign vessels on open seas. On the other hand, it raises export costs because the fish must first be sent to Jakarta before distributing to the destination country.

One example is the case of Bitung, North Sulawesi, which saw the cost of its tuna exports rise with the regulatory requirement for the product to transit in Jakarta before shipping to Japan.

With that said, the future of Indonesia’s fisheries policy supposedly follows the values of Industry 4.0, like emphasizing efficiency and enhancing the added value of a particular product.

Two important things worthy of consideration are: First, educating our fishermen and aquaculture farmers on utilizing technology to improve the quality of their products; and second, supporting quality improvement at national fish processing companies.

These actions will significantly enhance the future competitiveness of Indonesian fisheries, particularly in the Industry 4.0 era. If these measures are implemented seriously, the Global Maritime Axis is on the horizon.
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