Java Island is home to the largest population of fishermen in Indonesia, with East Java, Central Java and West Java having the largest number of fishermen compared to other provinces.

In 2013, out of 2.17 million fishermen in Indonesia, 334,000 were in East Java, 203,000 in Central Java and 183,000 in West Java, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

Yet, historically fish consumption on Java has been the lowest in the archipelago, as shown by the latest data from the National Social Economic Survey.

From 2012 to 2016, annual fish consumption in West Java, Yogyakarta, Central Java and East Java was in the range of 20 to 31.4 kilograms per person.

Meanwhile, fish consumption in Jakarta increased from 2014 to 2016, growing from 32.55 kg to 39.28 kg per person per year.

However, this was still lower than the national fish consumption of 43.94 kg per person in 2016, which itself was much lower than in countries like Japan and South Korea, as well as in eastern Indonesia, where one person eats about 60 kg of fish per year.

“In Java, people have many substitutes for fish, such as tahu [tofu], tempe [fermented soybean] and meat. They tend to think fish is smelly. Meanwhile, in Eastern Indonesia, much of the cuisine is based on fish,” said Darjamuni, the head of the Jakarta Fisheries and Food Security Agency, on Friday.

“As for Indonesia in general, low purchasing power and a lack of awareness of the health benefits of eating fish contribute to the low fish consumption in the country.”

Therefore, the government has been campaigning to encourage people to eat more fish as fish meat has many nutritional benefits and is cheaper than beef and other meats, aiming for national fish consumption to reach 47.12 kg per capita in 2017.

The nationwide campaign has been led by the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry through a program called the Consuming Fish Movement since 2004 and since 2010 the ministry has been holding an annual fish bazaar.

This year, the bazaar was held for three days from Wednesday until Friday this week. Like in previous years, the bazaar proved to be popular among Jakartans.

Misran, 31, and Wiji Pramajati, 37, said that they went to the bazaar at 10 a.m. on Thursday to buy mackerel, but all of the fish had been sold out.

The two civil servants returned to the bazaar at 6 a.m. on Friday and ordered 4 kg of mackerel.

“People were [swarming] like ants even at 7 a.m. here,” Wiji said, adding that they were going to cook the fish to break their fast.

Adi, a 40-year-old vendor at the bazaar, said that shrimp, squid and kakap (snapper) were the favorites of customers. He said he opened his stall at 6 a.m. and by 10 a.m. those three had sold out.

“Most of the buyers bought at least 3 kg,” he said.

In the last two days, the fish merchant from Muara Angke in North Jakarta said all his products had sold out.

Muhammad Fauzan Agustiandin, a 22-year-old online pempek (fish cake) seller, also sold all of his stock during the bazaar.

“Today has the highest on record. I came at 9 a.m. and my 271 packs of pempek had sold out by 11 a.m.,” the South Tangerang man said. (dra)

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