The Great Potential of Milkfish in Indonesia

Milkfish is a type of brackish water fish which has a specific taste and has been known in Indonesia and even abroad. This fish is the only species which still exists in the family Chanidae. Milkfish in several provinces, especially in Java, has become a superior commodity and its processed food has become a provincial specialty. Like Banten, this province is famous for its very distinctive milkfish satay products, in Central Java, especially in the Semarang region, famous for its presto milkfish and in East Java, especially in Sidoarjoregion, it produces a lot of thorny milkfish.

In some provinces, namely, East Java, Central Java, Banten and West Java, milkfish are cultivated with ponds and sea culture systems. Milkfish cultivation in ponds or in floating net cages in the sea is relatively easier compared to freshwater aquaculture. The capital to carry out his cultivation was very large. But this is comparable to the results obtained by the farmers. Most of the milkfish farmers who are generally cultivated in ponds if done with good and correct cultivation techniques, will give very favorable results.

Based on data from Susenas (National Socio-Economic Survey) - BPS in 2014 (processed by the Directorate of Domestic Marketing), the level of national milkfish consumption is an average of 1.40 kg / capita where market absorption at the household level is 352,718 tons. Of the total household market uptake for milkfish, the highest market uptake in sequence was occupied by South Sulawesi Province at 74,839.75 tons (22%), Central Java Province at 50,916.96 tons (15%), West Java Province at 46,457.58 tons (13%), East Java Province at 39,643.29 tons (12%) and Banten at 27,523.63 tons (8%). In general, the market absorption for milkfish in the 5 (five) provinces above reaches 70% of the total national absorption of milk fish.