Jambi (ANTARA Jambi) - Fish farmers in Muarojambi District of Jambi Province, one of the country's provinces designed as fish pellet production centers, are able to produce 25 tons of 'patin' catfish per day, Muarojambi District head said.
"With production reaching 25 tons per day, Muarojambi becomes a patin catfish production hut in Jambi," Muraojambi District Head Burhanuddin Mahir said here on Wednesday.
However, pond and floating fish cage farmers still face high fish food price and unstable patin price in the market, he said.
In an effort to cope with the problem, the local government is proposing the establishment of a regional government's owned firm (BUMD)which gets support from the provincial and central governments in handling the farmers' patin production.
Besides proposing the establishment of BUMD, the Muarojambi regional government has also signed an agreement with the Maritime and Fisheries Affairs Ministry and with an investor to establish a patin fillet processing unit in Muarojambi.
Jambi province's Maritime and Fisheries Service said earlier that Jambi would become one of 'patin' catfish (P. Pangasius) fillet processing centers in Indonesia.
"Jambi will be made one of the country's patin fillet processing centers. Based on a decision by the Maritime and Fisheries Ministry (DKP), three provinces have been appointed to become patin processing centers, namely the provinces of Jambi, Riau and West Kalimantan," Head of the local Maritime and Fisheries Service Saipuddin said.
The DKP ministry has stopped the importation of patin fillet, hoping that the need for patin fillet at home would be met by the three provinces, he said.
Indonesia previously imported patin fillet from Vietnam, but the import had been stopped to help patin farmers at home increase their catfish production for domestic market.
In Jambi, according to Saipuddin, the patin fillet processing center is built in Kemingking village, Kumpeh Subdistrict, Muarojambi District.
"Based on the DKP ministry's directives, a three-hectare location has been prepared in the village for the processing of patin fillet. It was built in cooperation with PT Indo Maguro, which processed the products. It has been in operation for one month now," he said.
He said that the Jambi processing center was the first to operate in Indonesia. Its official launch will be carried out by the Minister of Maritime and Fisheries Sharif Cicip Sutarjo on Saturday (April 6,2013).
Saipuddin said that the price per kg of patin catfish in Jambi now reached Rp11,000. The presence of the processing center will serve as a fresh wind for patin farmers because the company will absorb their patin products.
"The capacity of the patin fillet processing center will be gradually increased. The company said that if production is already running well, it will produce some five tons of patin fillet per day," he said.
Data at the DKP local office indicated that the production of Jambi's cultured patin catfish reached 24,827.4 tons in 2012 with farmers reaching 17,448 families.
"Hopefully, the presence of the patin processing industry would provide market for fish farmers," he said.(Ant)