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International Journal of Marine Science 2014, Vol.4, No.5: 61-66
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64
for Southern Sea Pearls (
Pinctada
spp) and escargot
(Putro, 2007).
The quantity of mollusk exports from Indonesia has
increased over the years, but the share of mollusk exports
to its landings are still low (at mean average 3.20%
during the period form 1976 to 2009). In quantity terms,
mollusk exports reached a peak at 8,104 tons in 2005,
with valued at US$ 7.28 million
.
In terms of both
quantity and value, miscellaneous mollusks were the
major mollusk product exported during period
1976-2009, followed by scallops (Figure 4).
Figure 4 Share of Indonesia Mollusk Exports to Landings
Note: Source: FAO Fishstat Plus
Mollusk production was marketed as fresh, frozen,
dried, salted and prepared for direct human
consumption or craft as well. In the period 1976–1997,
Indonesia trade in mollusk products grew significantly
both production terms and value terms, rising from
US$ 803 thousand (520 tons) in 1976 to US$ 1.93
million (1,035 tons) million in 2009, with the highest
mollusk production at 18.67 million (4,608 tons) in
1996. But due to crisis financial in the late 1997, trade
dropped by 6.8 % in 1998 (1,800 tons) compared to
1997 (Figure 5). The decline was happened both in
value terms and traded volumes. After that, in 1999
the national economy recovered and trade is starting
to improve, reaching about 4,582 tons, with an
increase of US$ 8.24 million
Figure 5 The Quantity and Value of Mollusk Exports
Note: Source: FAO Fishstat Plus
in value terms compared with 1998. Unfortunately,
again in the late 2008, there has happened a global
crisis which affected productivity of national economy
in Indonesia. As a result, mollusk exports dropped by
0.79% in 2009 (US$ 1.93 million) compared to 2008
(US$ 9.45 million).
Although mollusk exports grew very slowly (0.98
percent in the period 1976-2009), with an contuining
increasing of mollusk exports both in terms of
quantity and value, it may indicate that mollusks are
highly traded and can be main commodity of
Indonesia marine and fishery, besides shrimp, tuna
and seaweed, that can contribute to national income.
4 Discussions
This study showed that mollusks can become one of
most important fishery resources in national economy.
It is because the share production for export compared
to total production is still very low. It may indicate
that Indonesia can produce more and more mollusk
products. Furtheremore, the majority of natural
catches are still used for their personal consumption
(
Anadara
Spp,
Turbo Marmoratus
, and other snails),
half to be sold for local consumption (
Anadara
granosa
,
Mytilus viridis
, and oyster
),
and only a
minority to be exported (Pearls, Green Snail, Trochus,
Tridacnnidae, Abalone) (Setyono, 2007).
Indonesian mollusk fishery is still unexploited and
harvested well. It is maybe due to mollusk fishery are
facing a number of problems and constraints. First,
mollusks are a soft-bodied marine animal that are
highly vulnerable to pollution, but almost all areas of
Indonesia are affected seriously by environmental
pollution (Ma’ruf, personal communication, February
13, 2013; Yulinda, personal communication, February
12, 2013). Therefore, a lot of mollusk species in
Indonesia are heavily contaminated by metals that can
cause poisoning after consuming mollusks. For
example, in the Jakarta Bay there were numerous
mollusk species that have vanished and are polluted
(Meij, 2009). In addition, fisherman still use
traditional and low-technology methods, for capturing
mollusks, thus the production results are inefficient to
meet the standard requirements (Suhardiyanto, 2009).
These conditions are affecting the interest of the
society to consume mollusks and so not all countries
accept mollusks from Indonesia as exports (Putro,