Industry Review
47
Current issues in developing tilapia farming in Indonesia A strong domestic market absorbs most of its production but for export markets, industry needs to be cost efficient and competitive By Guruh Arifianto
T
he tilapia is very special to Indonesia, both as a commodity and a popular food fish domestically. Tilapia is farmed in various water bodies, such as lakes at the edge of volcanic mountains, raceways, freshwater and brackishwater earthen ponds, floating net cages, irrigation canals and rice fields. From 2011 to 2019, tilapia production in Indonesia was on the rise at a CAGR of 11.9% (GOAL, 2021). In 2017, production was 1.3 million tonnes but this dropped to 1.2 million tonnes in 2018. In 2020, affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, production went down to 1.2 million tonnes from 1.3 million tonnes in 2019 (Figure 1). Farmers suffered as demand dropped by 11%. Some 30-35% of this volume came from farming activities. Based on feed usage, nearly 400,000 tonnes were from intensive culture systems.
In 2022, tilapia production is expected to improve. However, new problems have emerged, due to the extraordinary increase in feed prices: the global rise in costs of some major feed ingredients. Thus, farmers encounter the problem of reaching production cost efficiency. In the first half of 2022, we expect that there will be a slight decline in production, as evidenced by the increase in fish prices in the domestic market. It has been reported that in several areas, small farmers have ceased farming due to rising production costs, mainly due to high feed prices.
In 2021, production remained relatively stagnant due to lower cage culture activities, declining supply of fry and fingerlings, disease outbreaks and environmental issues. Climatic factors included floods and upwellings in lakes. Since demand has been slow to increase, there was a high supply situation. However, there were regional differences with regards to recovery in demand.
Production volumes in thousand tonnes
1500 1337.83
1288.73 1250 1000
914.78
999.7
1169.14
1084.28 1114.16
695.06
750 567.08 500 250 0
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
@Statista 2022
Figure 1. Production volumes of Nile tilapia in Indonesia from 2011 to 2019volumes (Source: www.statista.com) Figure 1. Production of Nile tilapia in Indonesia from 2011 to 2019 (Source:
Red tilapia cage culture at the edge of Kapuas River with acidic pH. With 10,000 fish/cage (3mx7mx1.5m) yield can reach 2 tonnes/cage in a 5-month cycle.
www.statista.com)
In 2022, tilapia production is expected to improve. However, new problems have emerged, due to the extraordinary increase in feed prices: the global rise in costs of some major feed ingredients. Thus, farmers encounter the problem of reaching production cost efficiency. In the first half of 2022,
July/August 2022 AQUA Culture Asia Pacific
