REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesia will implement a certification system to prevent fish laundering, Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources Susi Pudjiastuti said here on Tuesday.

"I will make sure that all imports of fish will require a catch certificate in order to prevent so-called 'fish laundering'," she stated.

She admitted that Indonesia imported fish to meet the demand from the industrial sector such as certain restaurants which need salmon fish, a species not found in the country.

The minister explained that she has allowed these imports because she believed it will not hurt the price of local fish.

"Our fish imports have dropped," she continued, adding, "Indonesia imported many kinds of fish, not only salmon, which are not found in the country."

Susi pointed out that skipjack tuna is not found all year round in Indonesia. In addition to the decreasing trend of fish imports, the fish culture in Indonesia has also helped reduce dependency on fish feed, she noted.

She praised her office's program of distributing various types of fish feed machines to various regions as it seemed to have yielded results.

The office has increased the number of auditors from 700 to 1,000 this year to certify good fish culture practice.

"We want more counselors and auditors as the number of people involved in fish culture has also increased. Similarly, production, exports and fish consumption have also increased," the director general of fish culture, Slamet Soebjakto, informed in Mataram on May 26.

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