February 20, 2026 | 07:24 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia's national fisheries production and reserves in the first quarter of 2026 is expected to reach 3.57 million tons, according to the country's Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries.
"The production and reserve quantity combined remain higher than demand and consumption," said the ministry's Acting Director General for Strengthening the Competitiveness of Marine and Fisheries Products, Mahmud, in a virtual press conference on Thursday, February 19, 2026.
From January to March, fisheries production quantity consists of 2.05 million tons of cultivated fish and 1.52 million tons of captured fish, higher than the consumption demand of 1.94 million tons of fish during the same period.
The production surplus can be stored across 2,287 cold storage units, with a capacity of 899,178 tons. The majority, totaling 2,035 units, are privately owned, while the rest of the cold storage units belong to the government.
The government also ensures fisheries product availability across eight regions during Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, exceeding community demand by over 100 percent.
In Palembang, South Sumatra, for instance, fisheries production reached 21,890 tons in the first three months of 2026, with available stock in the region at 4,187 tons. Meanwhile, the demand is only 16,269 tons, making the availability 160 percent of the demand.
Meanwhile, the Acting Director of Fleet Operations Control at the Marine and Fisheries Resources Surveillance DG, Saiful Umam, said his side strives to ensure compliance from fisheries businesses to ensure availability during Ramadan.
The ministry conducts surveillance and monitoring of fisheries distribution and illegal fishing to ensure demands are met. Saiful also mapped out priority surveillance locations for both fisheries imports and the monitoring of fisheries processing and marketing, spread across Java and Sumatra.
For offshore surveillance, Saiful stated that the ministry remains on guard 24/7 through the net operation. The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries has deployed patrol boats at border locations such as the North Natuna Sea and the Arafuru Sea, targeting illegal foreign fishing vessels.
Additionally, the operation aims to assist fishers who encounter accidents at sea. "We want to ensure that our patrol vessels are standby and ready to perform search and rescue functions for our fishers when needed," he said.
Read: Indonesia's Fish Production Rises, Except for Carp
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