Indonesian Government Sets Export Quota For Skipjack Tunaff

Source: Jakarta Globe

Skipjack tuna producers are up in arms over a new government regulation limiting exports for the first quarter of this year, saying imposing quotas will neither stop a continuing slump in prices nor help them cope with falling international demand.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries imposed an export quota of 3,000 tons on unprocessed skipjack tuna in an attempt to help producers cope with domestic price drops. Equal quotas were given to the Indonesian Tuna Producers Association and the Indonesian Tuna Association.

“Each of them has a quota of 1,500 tons to export unprocessed skipjack tuna for the next three months,” said Soen’an Hadi Poernomo, the head of the ministry’s data and information center.

However, Eddy Yuwono, chairman of the tuna producers association, said the quota would not push up domestic skipjack prices because both local and foreign markets were already overstocked.

In Thailand, he said, plants are overflowing with stocks because demand for processed skipjack from the United States, that country’s key export market, has plummeted.

“Thailand might still want to buy our skipjack tuna, but at a very low price,” Eddy said on Thursday.

“The oversupply was signaled by the drop in tuna prices from between $1,500 and $1,600 a ton before September to $1,000 or less after the economic crisis hit the United States.”

“An export quota will be useless since the price is still dropping,” Eddy said, adding that three months would not be enough time to influence conditions and the government should in any event let market forces dictate the proper export volumes and prices.

The domestic price of skipjack tuna has also dropped to Rp 7,000 (656 cents) a kilogram, far less than producers’ break-even price of Rp 10,000 a kilogram. But despite the slump, Indonesian producers still favor selling their tuna in the domestic market because there are no export taxes and fees.