Evaluating and Monitoring of National Post-Harvest Fish Loss in Indonesia

Abstract

The demand of fish supply as food increases significantly as the population grows. One of the crucial aspects related to the production of fish is post-harvest fish loss which will substantially reduce the fish supply. Due to the perishable characteristics of fish, especially in tropical climate areas as Indonesia with high daily temperature and humidity, the situation will be more crucial and the reduction in quantity and/or quality could be considerably high. In the other side, the figure of fish stock potency does not indicate the available fish for further processing yet. Therefore, the figure will be more meaningful when it is corrected by the loss. Until recently, post-harvest fish loss in Indonesia is estimated as high as 30%; this figure has been used as reference for decades eventhough many effort has been done to reduce the fish loss. This situation indicates very serious problem since no further information how the data or the figure had been quantified. This figure needs to be evaluated and monitored periodically in order to provide more reliable number resulted by appropriate method of quantification. Questionnaire Loss Assessment Method (QLAM) developed by Ward and Jeffries in 2000 is recommended for fish loss calculation employing physical, quality and financial data as quantification bases. The quantification of national total post-harvest fish loss should be started from the fish is caughtuntil ready to be consumed. It is recommended that a system for evaluating and monitoring of national post-harvest fish loss is designed. The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries needs to assign a team consisted of Directorate General of Capture Fisheries, Agency of Research and Development for Marine and Fisheries to initiate and establish a system for evaluating and monitoring of national post-harvest fish loss comprehensively. Local Government should also be involved in the system, especially in coordination and providing enumerators. Agency for Marine and Fisheries Human Resources Development and Agency of Research and Development for Marine and Fisheries are responsible for providing capacity building and training of the enumerators systematically and periodically.