FAO RATES RI AS WORLD'S FOURTH BIGGEST SHRIMP PRODUCER

Jakarta, Nov 22 (ANTARA) - The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has placed Indonesia in fourth position on its list of shrimp producing countries in 2010 after China, Thailand and Vietnam, a fisheries ministry official said.

The ministry's Chief of Statistic and Information bureau Soen'an H Poernomo said Indonesia was in fourth position after China was in the first position with a production 1.3 million tons, Thailand in second position with 560,000 tons and Vietnam in third position with 370,000 ons.

Marine and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad said last August 2010, the government had initially set the country's shrimp production target for 2010 at 400,000 tons. But due to a disease that had infected shrimps, the figure had been revised downward to 350,000 tons.

The disease was still spreading in a number of shrimp producing regions such as Lampung, East Java and South Sulawesi.

To deal with diseases affecting shrimp and fish, the Marine and Fisheries Ministry was planning to build special shrimp and fish hospitals in Semarang, Central Java, and in Banten province at the end of 2010.

In 2008, Indonesia was able to produce 410,000 tons of shrimp making the country the third biggest shrimp producer in the world. Hence, the country's shrimp exports in that year increased by 21 percent compered to 2007.

During the past few years, Indonesia has been trying to increase its shrimp exports by entering new markets, namely in Russia, Saudi Arabia and Canada.

For 2014, the Marine and Fisheries Ministry's shrimp production target was 699,000 tons.

Meanwhile, Secretary General of the People`s Coalition for Fishery Justice (KIARA), Riza Damani said the government must realize its shrimp pond revitalization program in an effort to boost shrimp production at home.

"The government must revitalize the program soon," he said.

He said that in Lampung there were at least 25,000 hectares of shrimp ponds which should be revitalized soon because their production at present was low. The revitalization was expected to increase farmers production.

The government was also urged to take stern actions against firms which had taken over traditional ponds in violation of existing regulations on the environment.