The Covid-19 pandemic has not affected the ornamental fish business in Bandung, West Java. The trend of ornamental fish export crossing has increased during 2020 with a value of Rp. 93.3 billion. Head of the Fish Quarantine, Quality Control and Safety of Fishery Products (BKIPM) Bandung, Dedi Arief, said that ornamental fish commodities show encouraging graphics from year to year. "The pandemic has actually increased by 7.69 percent in terms of the volume we export," Dedi said as quoted from a written statement on Tuesday (26/1/2021).
As an illustration, BKIPM Bandung in 2018 exported 20,431,156 ornamental fish worth Rp 73.3 billion. This figure then increased to 21,672,096 individuals with a value of IDR 79.9 billion in 2019. Then in 2020, the number of export jumps was 23,317,318 with a value of Rp. 93.3 billion. UPT BKIPM Bandung is ranked second in the national ornamental fish exports. "Of course this shows that demand is increasing. In terms of export value, the increase was 16.68 percent amid pandemic conditions," he said.
Ornamental fish commodities that are in great demand by the export market include Tetra, Rasbora and ornamental shrimp. Collectors who are interested in ornamental fish, among others, come from 51 countries with the most from Japan, the United States and Singapore. He also explained the macro impact of upstream ornamental fish export activities from Bandung. According to him, ornamental fish exporters have employees of approximately 60 people with an average monthly income of IDR 4 million per person. The ornamental fish commodity is getting wider when exporters also partner with farmers. Based on the BKIPM Bandung data collection, there are 100 cultivators who cooperate with exporters through a partnership scheme, with each cultivator having around 3-4 workers. "From there, we can see that one exporter contributes to the people's income of approximately 460 people per month," said Dedi.
Therefore, Dedi ensures that his staff will continue to provide services to increase exports from Bandung. In fact, he emphasized that he did not hesitate to pick up the ball so that business actors would be interested in becoming exporters. "There are (export) opportunities, so we will continue to pick up the ball. A pandemic is not an obstacle for us to provide the best service, especially since there is an economic turnaround there," he said.
