Indonesian Snake Head Fish and Their Export Prospects

Indonesia is a country rich in resources, with diverse flora and fauna biodiversity abundance of aquatic biodiversity, including freshwater biodiversity, where many aquatic biotas live with various species, including snakehead fish. Snakehead fish is known as a fish that lives in fresh waters and can tolerate multiple water quality conditions. Snakehead fish itself is pretty widely spread in various regions in Indonesia; according to data from the Indonesian Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, snakehead fish are distributed among them on the islands of Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Papua.

Snakehead fish has an abundant albumin content when compared to other freshwater fish. It is this albumin that makes snakehead fish one of the freshwater biota that has significant economic value. Albumin acts as a wound healer by repairing damaged epidermal skin cells so they look normal again as before. Albumin is often used as a processed material, such as medicine in capsule or liquid form applied to the skin. The ability of snakehead fish albumin is considered very good compared to other fish with similar content, such as salmon, tilapia, tuna, etc.

Snakehead fish has albumin levels ranging from 6.22% to 16.7%, with a selling price in frozen form ranging from 5 USD to 8 USD per 1.5 kg. The economic status of snakehead fish can be seen from export and import data from countries such as Vietnam, India, China, Uganda, etc. which have nominal exports in 2021 of USD 8.47 million, USD 3.54 million, and 3.06 million, respectively. Million USD, and 6.19 million USD. Based on these data, it can be concluded that snakehead fish has a vital role in the national and global fishing industry.

Apart from being exported in frozen form, snakehead fish is also shipped in processed form, such as cosmetic and beauty products, pharmaceutical products and the health industry, etc. Processing of snakehead fish into food products that we often encounter include snakehead fish crackers, processed foods that use snakehead fish bone flour, such as the native food of South Sumatra, namely pempek, and other processed products from snakehead fish which are sold in the form of food products.

However, Indonesia, which is a country with the number 2 long coastline in the world with all the very future potential for developing snakehead fish farming as one of the leading industrial sectors in the field of aquaculture, does not even enter into one of the largest exporting countries in the world, even though the quality Indonesia's original snakehead fish is not inferior when compared to the quality of snakehead fish from the top 10 world snakehead fish exporting countries. This requires an in-depth evaluation from experts on why this can happen, especially experts in the field of fisheries, in the area of regulation and law, in a lot of food and product quality, and in the environmental field.

The author tries to analyze some of the existing regulations, according to the author that regulations in Indonesia are still not specific, and the contents of the regulations are too general. Such as the regulation of the Ministry of Trade number 64 of 2019, which contains import restrictions but does not discuss specific quantities or product quality that meets the requirements for import and only mentions the species in general without being spelled out in more detail so that people who incidentally are not legal persons and not familiar with laws and regulations, they tend to only cultivate according to market trends without seeing the true potential of the world's leading commodities.

The same is the case with the regulation of the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries number 10 of 2021, where the regulation is only explained in general regarding controlling the capture of fishery commodities illegally from nature, the regulation says to limit Indonesian fishery products for export, but with several pages, over a thousand with sentences that are often repeated will be a separate obstacle for fish cultivators, especially snakehead fish in Indonesia.

Indonesia, as a maritime country with extraordinary prospects, should have made regulatory barriers between aquaculture commodities that were arranged like a guidebook but had detailed procedures, starting from export regulations, import regulations, quality for exportable fish, suitable fish farming methods ( starting from guidelines for the construction of recommended fish farming ponds, an integrated aquaculture system with the RAS system or zero waste, the quality of natural feed and how to grow it, the excellent quality of artificial feed, to the proper handling of post-harvest fish), given an overview or education regarding certification- certifications such as HACCP, ISO, etc., which are packaged in a particular manual. For example, the book discusses snakehead fish, so from the first to the last page, it contains legal regulations, suitable snakehead fish cultivation methods, to an overview or education related to snakehead fish certification. So Indonesia in the future can have superior commodities that can compete in the international export market with product quality that is no less superior than snakehead fish products from other countries, it is even possible that our products will become priority products in the export market for importers global.

Thus the information that I can put into this article, hopefully with this article, it can make Indonesia more focused on supporting the development of the aquaculture industry in the future. Thank you readers who have taken the time to read this article that I wrote. Even though my knowledge is still lacking, I try to share my knowledge with you, dear readers. Hopefully, useful criticism and comments are always open for me to improve my works in the future.