REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PEKANBARU - The United States was the main export destination of Indonesia's fishery products, buying 1.07 billion USD or 30.4 percent of the country's overall fishery exports last year, the Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministry said. Japan came in second with 806 million USD (22.9 percent) and Europe in third with 459.8 million USD (13.1 percent), Marine Affairs and Fisheries Minister Sharif C Sutardjo said in an e-mailed statement on Wednesday.
Data from the ministry show Indonesia last year exported 3.5 billion USD worth of fishery products, up 22.95 percent from a year earlier. The ministry has set the target of fishery exports for 2012 at 4.2 billion USD. The strong growth in the 2011 fishery exports was attributed to close cooperation between the government and fishery businessmen to improve quality control system and provide safety guarantee to the buyers of Indonesian fishery products.
