Indonesia, Switzerland set up cooperation in fishery sector

A senior official at Indonesian Maritime and Fishery Ministry said Tuesday that Switzerland government had agreed to provide assistance to improve Indonesia' s fish commodity export capacity in international market. Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting, Saut Hutagalung, director general of fish processing and marketing at the ministry, said that Swiss assistance would be provided in the deployment of experts in fish production, post fishing, processing and marketing of fish products. The experts deployment would be part of Swiss assistance program for Indonesia's fishery sector conducted by Swiss agency of National Chief Technical Advisor (NCTA), he said. "The assistance program would be conducted in five years with an aim to boost up marketing capacity of Indonesia's ultimate fish products,"Saut said, adding those ultimate fish products were shrimps, tuna, seaweeds, catfish, freshwater fish and marinated fish. Particularly for marinated fish, Saut said that the assistance program would help increase its quality including its protein content as well as sustainability of fresh fish supply. This product would be prioritized for domestic consumption. He added that the assistance program fits with the ministry's fish industrialization program. Saut said several regions had been selected as centers of processing improvement of those ultimate fish products. Shrimp product improvement program would be centered in Banten and Sidoaro. Tuna in Ambon and Pelabuhan Ratu. Meanwhile, seaweeds would be centered in East Sumba and Central Lombok. Freshwater fish and catfish would be centered in Java, Sumatra and Kalimantan, he said.