Indonesia as a maritime country is a source of diverse fishery products and is loved by domestic and foreign consumers. Indonesian Tilapia is one of the trusted fishery products in the international market. One area that produces fishery products is North Sumatra, precisely from Lake Toba. The results of Tilapia fish cultivation from the largest lake in Indonesia are quite significant. The contribution of tilapia exports from Lake Toba, North Sumatra reached 91.66% of Indonesia's total tilapia exports, which amounted to USD 71.89 million in 2020.
The main consumer of tilapia in the world is the United States, which beats consumption in the European Union and Egypt, as the country of origin of tilapia. For American consumers, Tilapia is the fourth most popular fish after shrimp, salmon and tuna. In 2020, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) noted that America imported 190,453 tons of tilapia or USD 615 million. This figure illustrates an increase in the volume of Tilapia imports by 10% and an import value of 2.3% compared to 2019. America brings Tilapia from China, Indonesia, the Philippines, as well as Latin American countries such as Brazil and Mexico.
Tilapia products traded in the global market in fresh and frozen form include fresh whole tilapia, frozen whole tilapia, fresh tilapia fillets, and frozen tilapia fillets. Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Indonesia as the world's second largest producer of Tilapia, exported 12.29 thousand tons of tilapia with a value of USD 78.44 million in 2020. Suhana, Researcher in Marine Economics at the Indonesia Ocean Juctice Initiative (IOJI) explained that Indonesia's tilapia export flows from 5 provinces, namely North Sumatra, Central Java, East Java, North Sulawesi and DKI Jakarta. “The contribution of Tilapia (tilapia) export value from the five provinces was 91.66%, 8.29%, 0.04% and 0.0001%, respectively. Based on this, North Sumatra is the largest province of Tilapia exporters from Indonesia," said Suhana in her official statement, Monday (7/2).
