REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Indonesian government had set the target for fishery product exports at US$5.1 billion in 2014, according to the Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Ministry.

The export target represented a US$0.9 billion increase from last year's US$4.2 billion, the ministry's director general of fishery product processing and marketing Saut Hutagalung said here on Wednesday.

"Shrimp remained the key commodity to garner foreign exchange earnings from fishery exports," he stated in a report released at the Seafood Expo North America (SENA) in Boston, United States, on March 16-18.

He said shrimp contributed US$1.65 billion to the country's fishery export earnings, which totaled US$4.2 billion in 2013.

Tuna and crab were the second-largest foreign exchange earner after shrimp, he added.

Sixteen Indonesian companies attended the expo.

"Many Indonesian companies attended the expo as the United States is the world's largest fishery product market, which imports nearly 80 percent of its domestic needs," he said.

The United States imports 550-570 thousand tons of fishery products per year. Last year, Indonesia exported 136.9 thousand tons of fishery products worth US$1.4 billion to the United States.

"At the expo demand for shrimp remained high and so was tuna's. Demand for tuna was higher than shrimp, although its export volume is not as high as that of shrimp," he said.

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