Maluku Will Become the Center of Seaweed Industry
Deputy Minister of Industry, Prof. Dr. Ir. Alex S.W. Retraubun, M. Sc stated that seaweed might be cultivated massively for industry in the Moluccas. Prof. Alex said, that previosuly only automotive and manufacturing industries were the topics of the discussion in the Ministry of Industry. Therefore, the Deputy Minister whose origin is the Moluccas has decided to select seaweed as the new prospective industry that could be developed in the Province.
It was stated in his remarks when he invited as a keynote speaker at the National Seminar on Development of Small Islands at IPB International Convention Center, on 25 June 2011. "This program had already been communicated with the Regents and the Governor of Maluku. Moreover, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with six ministries namely the Ministry KUKM (Ministry of Cooperative and Small and Medium Business), Ministry of PDT (Ministry of Less Developed Eastern Indonesia), the Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Fisheries, BKPM (Investment Coordinating Board), and the Ministry of Commerce," he added.
Seaweeds might provide additional income for fishermen, that due to the global climate change the coastal fishes have moved to the deeper waters. The fishes have been predicted to move around 12 miles from its previous habitat, while the equipment owned by the fishermen cannot compete with big industry which enable to catch fishes at the 12 miles off shore. In addition, rising sea temperatures that caused warmer coastal areas is also another consideration.
Seaweed has a bright prospect, as it can be processed into 500 manufacturing products. Maluku seas is the best place for the center of the seaweed cultivation. With its sea covering areas of a more than dozen times larger than its land areas, it is expected to seaweed become sustainable products, thast continuesly supply the seaweed industries that generate more employment opportunities.
Salt self-sufficiency
In the event, Prof. Alex also presented a program on self-sufficient in salt. Each year, the domestic demand of salt is 3 million tons per year. While the national products of salt is only 1,2 million tons per year, thus, the national salt production meets less than half of domestic demand, we have to import the rests.
"Currently, East Java is the main source of our salt, and usually the salt farmers opration to produce the commodity in 4 (four) months only. Last year, due to the very high rainfall from January to December, their productivity dropped dramatically. In an effort to meet growing salt demand, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province is slated to play a larger role in producing the commodity, "he said
East Nusa Tenggara has more than 9000 acres of coastline. With a long dry season of about eight months, NTT is capable to produce salt which is estimated to double the production of East Java. Thus, the government requires only little effort to plan self-sufficiency in salt,.
Meanwhile, Dean of the School of the Graduate Studies of Bogor Agricultural University, Dr. Dahrul Syah in this event stated the strategies for small islands conservation by developing local knowledge and sustainable businesses. (Wied)
