Business Meeting of National Catfish Fillet Industry in IPB Agrifuture Expo

Unlike common fresh water fish, the texture of patin fish (one type of catfish) is so unique that it can be processed into a variety of delicious products. You can taste the delicious variety of processed catfish in IPB Agrifuture Expo at the Stand of Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Science, Bogor Agricultural University (IPB – FPIK) held at Baranangsiang Campus of IPB as one of the agenda of IPB 50th Anniversary.

"We have processed the catfish into products such as Ekado, meatballs, cakes, brownies, shredded, nuggets, siomay, empek-empek, crackers and a variety of other products and we have delivered to retail markets," said Ardi Wijaya of PT Adib (IPB FPIK’s partners) as a guest speaker in the Business Meeting ‘National Catfish Fillet Industry’, Friday (6/9) at IPB International Convention Center. To be able to compete and accepted by the retailers Giant and Lotte Mart, PT Adib is conducting strict quality control from upstream to downstream. "There are six fillet industries in Indonesia, our products are different from others," he said.

According to Widya Sulaksono, Senior Buyer Lotte Mart and also an alumnus of FPIK-IPB, every month his retail outlet only absorbs 2.5 tons of fish and its processed products. "Calculated totally for all retailers, the figure could reach tens of tons. We only accept fish and its processed products of good specifications. It would be great if there are a variety of products and types. Especially for fillet, we accept such specifications as fine textures, color that is similar to that of imported products (otherwise specified with particularly interesting features), and much less fishy smell," said Widya. Widya gave an example that in Europe there is the kind of salmon but not of pink color, so we can tell that such salmon is not pink type of salmon, and thus buyers are interested to buy it. Widya laments the low level of consumption of fish and its processed products. He said, only one per cent of consumers buy fish and its processed products.

Vice Rector for Research and Cooperation of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), Prof. Dr. Anas Miftah Fauzi hopes from this meeting established good cooperation to improve the competitiveness of catfish and its processed products in order to compete with Vietnam, which has controlled 25 percent or about 1.2 million tons of catfish world market. "Let us work together between campuses, ministries, and industry so that we can achieve a mission to improve the competitiveness of fish products and its processed products," said Prof. Anas.

Besides Bapedda of Jambi Province, Ir. Ahmad Anshor Fauzi, also present were Director General of Aquaculture, Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Dr. Slamet Sobjakto and Director of Domestic Trade, Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Ir. Sadullah Muhdi, MBA. IPB Agrifuture Expo is held by IPB in cooperation with Bank BRI. (Mtd)