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THE SOCIAL ECONOMY OF DRIED FISH IN INDONESIA REPORT

Kevin Edbert

Anth4840: Dried Fish in Indonesia

University of Manitoba

Introduction

Indonesia is one of the largest countries in Southeast Asia with a population of over 270 million people as of 2021. With most of its territory being coastal and seawater, around 60% of it, Indonesia would be considered as a maritime country. In fact, around 75% of Indonesia’s geography are bodies of water if one was to also include inland bodies of water such as lakes and rivers. It is perhaps not a coincidence that there are a lot of economic activities in Indonesia that utilizes these resources. In fact, according to the Indonesian Center for Statistics (2018), for the year 2017, fishery contributed around 16% to 21% of the total gross domestic product (GDP) income in the agriculture, forestry, and fishery (group A) section. Group A itself contributed a 13% to the Indonesian GDP. A quick observation based on the trimestral distribution would indicate that the fishery sector is consistent throughout the year, unlike agriculture which most likely be affected by the seasonal harvest cycle. Perhaps one may conclude that the fishery sectors is the most consistent source of food in Indonesia. Even if the claim would ever be found to be wrong, at least it is a fact that fishery is one of the larger sources of subsistence in Indonesia.

This report probed into the socioeconomic and cultural dynamics of dried fish products in Indonesia as a part of a submission to the Dried Fish Matters (DFM) project. The Dried Fish Matters project is a multidisciplinary research project on dried fish products in South and Southeast Asian countries (Dried Fish Matters 2021a). The multidisciplinary approach by the Dried fish Matters team was perhaps an unintentional result of the economic theory of stacked value chain that the project was based on. Whatever the case may be, the multidisciplinary approach is essential for the project’s goal of analyzing the importance of dried fish products as detailed as possible (Dried Fish Matters 2021c). Simply put, the social economy theory is a theory that was purposively made explicitly integrate all non-economical process inside of the analysis.

The Dried Fish Matters project cited that the dried fish products might be among the most important source of subsistence for the most vulnerable population in South and Southeast Asian countries (Dried Fish Matters 2021a). That statement seems to be quite in parallel with the statistics cited earlier on Indonesian fishery. With fishing being accessible throughout the year citizens that do not have access to agricultural product may have to reserve to consuming fish products for nutrition. However, for the sake of security, there is a necessity in inventing a way to store these fish products for a long period of time. This is where the analysis of the dried fish product becomes essential. The creation of dried fish was an old, traditional way to preserve the nutritional value of fishes in storage situations especially in the Southeast Asian Region (Ruddle and Ishige, 2010). With thousands of different cultures spread around over 16,000 islands, this thesis would try to catalog some of the more popular ways to preserve fish in Indonesia.

The purpose of this research is to provide a surface level understanding of the dried fish economy and cultural importance using the value chain theory.

Research Questions

• What are the national policies and regulations regarding dried fish and fishery in Indonesia?
• What is the fish consumption pattern in Indonesia?
• What are the cultural utilizations of dried fish products in Indonesia?

Research Objectives

• Create a surface level database of relevant laws in Indonesian that pertains to dried fish and fishery in Indonesia.
• Create a supply and demand database for the consumption pattern of fish and fish products in Indonesia.
• Create an analysis of the cultural utilization of dried fish products in Indonesia.

Statement of Positionality

This report was be made by an outsider of Indonesian origin. What the term “outsider of Indonesian origin” means is that the researcher acknowledges his disassociation with Indonesian culture despite being born in Indonesia. This disassociation itself is not really attributed only to the fact that the researcher has been living in Canada for more than three years, but it is also an acknowledgement of one impossibility to be associated with the thousands of cultures alive in Indonesia at the same time. For the researcher, claiming to be and Indonesian is almost as broad as claiming to be an Asian. The Asian identity itself does not really mean much considering the very broad meaning of “Asian” as a descriptive term. Does the term Asian refer to people that were born in Asia? Does it refer to the distinct skin tone and physical appearances of people with Asian descent? Does it refer to the “Asian culture”, whatever the term means considering the broad cultural differences between Asian countries? The researcher believes that the same criticism can be said about the very broad meaning of the statement “I am Indonesian”.

The researcher was born in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. He spent most of his time living in an urban area and rarely experience the “traditional” way of living in Java, one of the main islands in Indonesian Archipelago. The researcher felt that urban lifestyle in Jakarta has more in common with the western urban lifestyle than Indonesian traditional lifestyle. That is to say that even before going to Canada, the researcher was already more Canadian than Indonesian. To the researcher, the term Indonesian refers to people the association between the self and the non-western cultures in Indonesia. The term non-western is simply referring to urban lifestyle that the researcher believes to be distinct from the rest of Indonesian culture group. At some point when the researcher was able to travel away to a more secluded, non-urban areas, the locals would often refer the researcher as “orang Jakarta”, meaning people from Jakarta. Though this example is mostly anecdotal, meaning not every non-urban residing people would refer to “orang Jakarta” as “orang Jakarta”, the researcher believes that the distinction between the urban and non-urban culture can be felt by both sides of the spectrum.

For the sake of the thesis, the identity of the researcher can simply be understood as an outsider with native Bahasa Indonesia, the Indonesian national language, proficiency. Therefore, the researcher will depend on the literatures and the interviews to extract the cultural nuances rather than trying to explain and analyze these nuances with authority himself.

Methodology

This report used literature review to answer the research question stated above. It was the belief that literature review is at least sufficient for the surface level analysis that will be conducted in the thesis. On top of literature review, interviews were also planned in the initial stages of this report but had to be scrapped due to time constraints. The rationale behind using this methodologies was to utilize any available resources in order to build up a platform for future research in the context of the Dried Fish Matters project. Literature review allowed the researcher to build up a rapport on Indonesian fishery, this is especially important especially when there was no previous explicit work on Indonesia by the Dried Fish Matters team.

Literature review is a type of secondary research data collection (Hox and Boejie 2005). A secondary research data refers to the reuse of a previous research in ongoing research (Hox and Boejie 2005). The problem with secondary research data is that these extracted data might not be specific enough to the purposes of a new research (Hox and Boejie 2005). However, the literature review method is important, if not critical for any work that acts as a foot in the door in a novel environment. According to Knopf (2006), the literature review method is a summarization and evaluation of an existing literature body. This rather broad definition of what literature review might be correlated to Knopf perceived literature review in term of its position in a research project. Knopf (2006) further added that the literature review method may be used into three contexts. The first context is where the literature review is used only as introductory probe into a larger research project, the second context is where it is used in the main body of a research project, and lastly literature review can also exist as a research project in on itself (Knopf 2006). Inferring from Knopf’s analyses, it would seem to be the case that literature review can be used both as a tool for the formation of a research and as the main part of the research which is data collection. Naturally, literature review will be used throughout all stages of the thesis.

Literature Review

Dried Fish

According to the definition by the Dried Fish Matters team, broadly speaking, if a fish product is neither fresh nor frozen, it may be considered as a dried fish product (Dried Fish Matters 2021b). The team further clarifies that salted, dried, fermented, pickled fish, and fish sauce products may be considered as dried fish product (Dried Fish Matters 2021b). Even though these examples given by the team would probably be enough to identify and classify most if not all the fish products that might be encountered in the thesis, there should be a redundancy in the classification dried fish in the case that a product may not fall into these definitions. Another interpretation of dried fish might be made by grouping them based on the methodology of how the product was made. Doe and Olley (1990) proposed that there are six fish drying methods, those are sun drying, curing and drying, solar drying, agrowaste as fuel for drying, mechanical drying, and other methods.

Sun drying refers to a method of drying a fish by direct exposure to sunlight (Doe and Olley 1990). Doe and Olley (1990) mentioned that salt may be added to the fish prior to drying, though the action of adding salt is also a part of the ‘curing and drying’ fish drying method. Doe and Olley (1990) also mentioned that infestation of fly larvae and consumption by the wildlife animals such as birds may contribute to the loss of products that are made using this method. Curing and drying refers to the addition of substances that may prolong the freshness of the fish product (Doe and Olley 1990). For example, the addition of salt, antioxidants, and antimicrobial agents are examples of curing and drying (Doe and Olley 1990). It may be inferred that sun drying and curing and drying may be used in conjunction with one another to maximize shelf life of the products. It was mentioned that during periods with high humidity, fishes that are being dried may spoil through bacterial growth which may be why curing were also done in conjunction to drying (Doe and Olley 1990).

Solar drying refers to the use of the utilization of convection law of physics to artificially make an air flow to dry a fish product (Doe and Olley 1990). Solar drying was done in a solar drier, which may be understood as a structure that allows the concentration of solar energy where the convection of air will occur (Doe and Olley 1990). These solar driers usually take a form of a tent-like structure with the fish products being put inside of these structures (Doe and Olley 1990). If the researcher understood the process correctly, there are three steps in the convection process used in this method. The first is allowing relatively cool air to enter the tent from the bottom. Second, using the concentrated heat trapped by the surfaces of the tent to heat the air. And finally, since hot air tends to move upwards, direct the airflow to go up to a hole carved on the roof of the tent (see Figure 1). In contrast to sun drying, the solar drying method relies on air flow to dry the fish instead of directly using the sunlight itself. Doe and Olley (1990) mentioned a study by Trim and Curran in 1983 that compares a sun drying method (more specifically sun drying method on black rocks, a traditional method to dry fish in Ecuador) to a solar drying method, the study concluded that the latter was able to dry the fish at a higher rate, and overall produced a better product.

Figure 1. An example of a solar tent drier, illustration from Doe and Olley (1990)

Agrowaste as fuel for drying refers to the use of substances obtained from bioconversion to increase the shelf life of fish products (Doe and Olley 1990). For this methodology, however, the steps and examples were not clearly stated in the description, though Doe and Olley mentioned that smoking would be an example of this methodology. Doe and Olley (1990) also mentioned that some agrowaste methodology may have difficulty maintaining a temperature high enough where convection is most efficient, but not too high where it may cook the fish.

Mechanical drying refers to the process of mechanical fish dehydration (Doe and Olley 1990). For example, the use of electric fan for air recirculation would be considered as a mechanical drying (Doe and Olley 1990). The use of electric heating and wood fire (with or without smoke) is also considered as mechanical drying (Doe and Olley 1990). Although not specifically mentioned, the heat produced by this method may be utilized as a part of the air convection process that was earlier mentioned in the solar drying process. It may be inferred that these modern methodologies of fish drying are a form of integration of traditional knowledge and modern tools such as electric fans.

The last methodology that was categorized as others refers to a broad range of drying methodologies such as freeze drying, solvent extraction/drying, and drying on heated drums (Doe and Olley 1990). It was mentioned that freeze drying is more expensive compared to the other, previously mentioned, methodologies, and freeze-dried fish tend to be poorer in quality compared to frozen fish (Doe and Olley 1990). Perhaps it should be mentioned that freeze-dried fish may be outside of the Dried Fish Matters definition of dried fish. However, one could also argue that freeze-dried fish should also be included as a form of dried fish products.

Value Chain Theory

According to the Wikimedia created by the Dried Fish Matters team, value chain analysis refers to the “[…] network of actors whose activities enable the production and distribution of goods and services to consumers.” (Dried Fish Matters 2021d). To put it in another words, the value chain theory as described by the team’s Wikimedia emphasized the importance on knowing all the factors that went into the production, distribution, and consumption of a product, providing a broader and general analysis rather than a specific and detailed one. That being said, the Dried Fish Matters team explicitly stated that they would be engaging in a more enriched understanding of the value chain network, which may be inferred as a commitment to provide a detailed analysis rather than a general one (Dried Fish Matters 2021d).

Kaplinsky and Morris (2001) defines value chain as “[…] the full range of activities which are required to bring a product or service from conception, through the different phases of production, delivery to final consumers, and final disposal after use.” Broadly speaking, this definition by Kaplinsky and Morris provide a more general and basic understanding of the theory, but the fundamentals are still the same with the definition used by the Dried Fish Matters Wikipedia. In both interpretations, they both acknowledge some sort of flow between all stages of a production. It should be noted that the value chain that was described in the Dried Fish Matter’s team Wikipedia seem to be made specifically for the purposes of the team’s project, thus the examples used in the Wikipedia were explicitly made for the project. In other words, the examples are already specific to the dried fish production process.

In the Dried Fish Matters Wikimedia, the team divided the value chain into three segments, upstream, midstream, and downstream (Dried Fish Matters 2021d). These three segments refer to the flow of the production of dried fish, more specifically from upstream, to midstream, then finally to downstream. In this chain, the output of the previous segment, except for the upstream segment, becomes the input for the next segments. The Upstream segment refers to the actors that produces the raw product. The midstream segment refers to the actors that transforms fresh fish into dried fish products and the distribution of the dried fish products to other distributors. The downstream segment refers to the actors that distributes the dried fish products to consumers.

To illustrate the level of understanding that the project wanted to achieve, the Wikipedia included a table detailing each of the actors, assets, inputs, and outputs of each of the segment. For example, in the upstream sector the fishers, the actors in the segment, use boats and nets, the assets in the segment, who transform their labor and fuel, the input in the segment, into fish, the output in the segment (Dried Fish Matters 2021d). However, that was only a very broad generalization of each of the segments. Furthermore, the team emphasized that a more nuanced understanding of the upstream segment should go beyond just the aforementioned actor. External actors such as the government may influence how the particular segment may function by passing laws and regulations. It should be noted that there are two midstream actors that was mentioned in the Wikipedia, those are processors and traders. Although both actors belong to the midstream segment, one may argue that those actors should be separated into two different segments. However, one may also argue that the use of the segments in itself is just a way to illustrate the flow of the production and that the important analysis will be made on an “actor” level if not more specific.

In contrast to the Dried Fish Matters team understanding of the value chain theory, Kaplinsky and Morris (2001) proposed that the link between each activity in a good production are often two-ways in nature, unlike the one-way process that was defined in the Dried Fish Matters Wikipedia. That is not to say that Kaplinsky and Morris (2001) are working with a different value chain theory, in fact they still acknowledge the existence of a flow of production. The difference here, at least in terms of the flow, may just be the visualization of the pattern of influence. Consider the following, if every processor, an actor from the midstream segment, according to the Dried Fish Matters Wikipedia, that transforms fresh fish into dried fish put up a rule that they will only accept anchovy. In Kaplinsky and Morris definition, this the example of a two-way link. In the Dried Fish Matters team definition, this would be an example of an external actor influencing the upstream segment actors, the fishers. However, effectively both definitions still acknowledge the influence of the rule to the fishers in the upstream segment, thus it may be the case that the difference is simply semantics.

Another point of interest when contrasting the two definitions is that in Kaplinsky and Morris’ view, recycling is also a part of the value chain, whereas in the Dried Fish Matters team’s view, the value chain ends when the product is received by the consumers. While this might seem like something that was overlooked by the team, in terms of the goal of the Dried Fish Matters project the recycling side may just be irrelevant. With regards to the dried fish consumption, nothing would be left for recycling, at least for human actors. In the example that the Kaplinsky and Morris (2001) provided, which is a figure detailing the process of producing wooden furniture, the remains of a used wooden furniture may still be used again, as something to burn, for example. Though it should be noted that there are some fish species that are entirely not edible by humans, but are still used for fish meal in aquaculture, or even in poultry production, which one might infer as a ‘recycled’ product in itself. However, while it may seem to be the case that dried fish products are consumed entirely, some things such as a plastic container that may be used to contain the dried fish products still exist. Even if the team’s focus is solely on the dried fish product, certain laws and regulations on plastic containers may impact the distribution of these fish product, which means on a grand scheme of the value chain, it will have an impact. A counter argument to this approach may actually still be a part of consideration by the Dried Fish Matters team, but just simply not large enough to be noticed as a main four actors of the production of dried fish. Whichever the case may be, it might be important to go back and reflect on these points when going forward with the thesis.

Results

Fish Consumption Pattern

In the literature research it was observed by Wibowo et al. (1990) that dried fish are mainly exported to Java, more specifically to Merak, Sunda Kelapa, and Jakarta in West Java and Tanjung Perak in East Java. The source noted that the West Javanese ports mainly receive exports from Sumatran provinces such as Bangka Belitung, Palembang, Riau, and Tanjung Karang, while the port in Tanjung Perak receive exports from South Kalimantan. It is also implied in the figure that was shown in the literature that Tanjung Perak also receives export from other provinces east of Java, outside of Kalimantan, such as South Sulawesi. Within Java, Wibowo et al. suggested that the flow of the product moves east to west, in which fish imports received in eastern ports such as Tanjung Karang are directed westwards, this observation also implies that the import of dried fish received on the Western ports are retained within West Java. The article also noted that in Central Java, locally produced dried salted fish products are usually exported to West Java, while also noting that a smaller portion are also exported to East Java.

In terms of supply and demand, or at least in terms of the demands, it is logical to accept the pattern that was proposed by [1]. According to the Indonesian Center for Statistics (Budan Pusat Statistik in Indonesian, or most commonly referred to as BPS), in 1990 the population of West Java (including Jakarta) numbered around 43,643,618 people, while Central (including Yogyakarta) and East Java numbered around 31,433,697 and 32,503,991 people respectively. Therefore, the flow of dried fish products from east to west and the retainment of the products within West Java is evident from the point of view of the demands. However, in terms of the supply side, it is harder to make the case to support the observation made by Wibowo et al. Throughout the literature review there were no explicit study on breaking down the supplier of dried fish within Indonesia. There is, however, one way to make an implicit prediction about which parts of Indonesia act as the supplier of dried fish. In the 1994 article by Naamin, the researcher noted that 95% of dried fish suppliers are artisanal and small-scale producers. It could be safe to assume that the observation by Naamin implied that fish processors are largely decentralized and scattered all around the coastal or freshwater areas all around Indonesia and that the direction of fish export and import is more influenced by the demand, rather than the supplier.

2018 and 2019 Data collected from Indonesian Marine and Fisheries Ministry (Kementerian Kelautan dan Perikanan in Indonesian, or KKP; KKP, n.d.) a term called Fish Processing Units described in the legend as a ‘place where fish processing is conducted’ (Unit Pengolahan Ikan in Indonesian, or UPI) may be used to see which provinces act as the provider of dried fish within Indonesia. The data collected by the ministry itself is further categorized into two, which are businesses of micro or small scale and businesses of medium or large scale. Pertaining to the finding of Naamin (1994), it may be safe to assume that the focus should be on the micro or small-scale business. It is likely to be the case that the medium or large-scale businesses are producers of canned fish, rather than dried fish, given how fish preserved in canning have a longer shelf life, which is a more secure business model than using dried fish. Assuming that the preposition is accurate, then the data on micro/small-scale fish processors would reflect the number of dried fish processors in Indonesia, divided into provinces, which then might be used to infer the suppliers of dried fish in Indonesia.

Area	Number of micro and small fish processing units
Sumatra	14,483
Sumatra (2019)	15,386
Java	26,026
Java (2019)	28,395
Borneo	8,638
Borneo (2019)	5,996
Sulawesi	4,712
Sulawesi (2019)	6,367
Nusa Tenggara island chain and Bali	4,700
Nusa Tenggara island chain and Bali (2019)	3,217
Moluccas island chain and Papua	1,870
Moluccas island chain and Papua (2019)	2,732

Table 1. Statistics of Fish Processing Units, taken from Indonesian Marine and Fisheries Ministry

As seen in Table 1, Java has the largest amount of micro and small fish processing units, followed by Sumatra, then Borneo, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara island chain and Bali, and the Moluccas island chain and Papua. However, while this data shows the supplier according to the islands, it does not really tell much about the flow of dried fish. Consider the proposition of Wibowo et al. (1990) where dried fish is retained within Java, acknowledging that there is a 30 years difference between the data used then and the table, it can be inferred that the 28,395 small processing businesses do not produce enough products for the whole population of Java. One way to infer the flow of the supply and demand then is to see the ratio of fish producers to population, using the ratio for Java as a standard where the number of fish produced would surmount to a net negative.

Area	Population (2020)	Fish Processing Units (2018 and 2019)	Ratio of FPU to population
Sumatra (2020)	58,600,000	14,483	0.00024715
15,386 (2019)	0.00026256
Jawa	151,600,000	26,026	0.000171675
28,395 (2019)	0.000187302
Kalimantan	16,600,000	8,638	0.000520361
5,996 (2019)	0.000361205
Sulawesi	19,900,000	4,712	0.000236784
6,367 (2019)	0.00031995
Nusa Tenggara and Bali	15,000,000	4,700	0.000313333
3,217 (2019)	0.000214467
Mollucas island chain and Papua	8,600,000	1,870	0.000217442
2,732 (2019)	0.000317674

Table 2. Ratio of Fish Processing Units to Population according to area in Indonesia

Although the population shown in Table 2 is from the 2020 consensus (given that Indonesia only hold a consensus every 10 years) which make comparisons to the 2019 Fish Processing Unit data, let alone the 2018, a bit of a stretch. At the very least, it might be the only objective way to analyze the flow of supply with the current readily available information. However, beyond knowing the ratio of net negative dried fish production, there is not really much that can be extracted from the comparison given that there is not really any way to know at least the net zero dried fish production ratio. Which is to say that the direction of import to Java from all the other areas is probably realistic, but there is not really a way to know the flow of dried fish supply between the any of the other areas.

That being said an analysis of inter-island fish supply chain conducted by [2] noted that in the eastern part of Indonesia, the time of shipping to Java of four days would not allow the export of fresh fish. Instead fish trading in the eastern part of Indonesia is mainly concentrated in the trade between Papua, the Moluccas island chain, and Sulawesi. Although the concern of spoilage may only be true for fresh fish trading, dried fish products do lose its quality if not stored properly, which probably disincentives trade from east Indonesia to Java because the value of the fish would suffer due to the lowering of the quality. In addition to the quality concern, Fegan also observed that, even though the price of trade freighter is decreasing, the inter-island price margin for dried and salted fish products is too steep. Even though the observation that Fegan made was quite dated given the year of 2022, but in terms of the limited capital of micro and small level fish processor, the claim may still stand to reason.

In terms of the value chain theory, which is interested in the relationship between, in the case of dried fish production, fishermen, fish processors, retailers, and consumers, there seem to be a couple of relevant literature that came up in the review. Darma et al. (2018) looked at the business relationship between fish processors and fish producers to be mutually beneficial. Specifically, Darma et al. was interested in fish processors in Sumatra, the North Nias, Batam and Mentawai district. In the research Darma et al. noted that processed fish would sell higher compared to just selling the fish raw with a return of investment ratio as high as 1.76 in the Batam district’s Tamban fish chip processors, and as low as 1.2 in the Tamban fish cracker processors. Interestingly, another point that was brought up by Darma et al. was that the fish producing and processing business, at least in the three districts included in the research, is observed to be mostly ran within a family unit where it was observed that the husbands act as the fishermen while the wives act as the fish processors. Although that being said, there study does not really present any data pertaining to the claim. Another part of this research, which is concerned with the COREMAP II governmental initiative on preserving coral delves into integrating fish farmers to the relationship between fishermen and fish processors. The integration of fish farmers or aquaculture was thought to be mutually beneficial for all parties involved because, for the fishermen, fish that are not feasible to be used in human consumption (trash fish) can be sold to the fish farmers as fish food, and for the fish processors, the fish farmer can act as a more consistent source of fish because it is not dependent on the condition of the sea, which may fluctuate as the year goes on.

One study by Salagrama and Salka (2010) complements the finding of Darma et al. (2018), in their observation of the Nias district economy activity on dried fish, however, they found that processed fish supply which encompasses salted and dried fish, smoked fish and boiled fish has a problem with poor customer which showed low market incentive to expand on the dried fish market. A contrast to the seemingly too positive findings of Darma et al. One interesting finding from the Salagrama and Salka (2010) article is that they listed a number of ‘stakeholders’ categorized into groups that are seemingly in parallel with the groups used in the value chain theory.

File:Final Report 2.png

Figure 2. Stakeholders in fish supply chain according to Salagrama and Salka (2010)

From the table taken from Salagrama and Salka (2010), one can see the complexity of a fish supply chain that seem quite simple in premise (see Figure 2). A quick analysis of the producer and trader table suggest that the capacity of the actor to produce or to trade is affected by the socioeconomic condition of each of the actor. Presumably motorboat owners in the producer level would have a better production capacity, similarly, motorcycle trader would have both a better trading capacity and a better reach due to having a better transportation. The ancillary worker table shows a list of actors that may be informative of the necessary utility of a fish supply chain. That is to say that outside of the typical producers, processors, trader, and customer landscape of fish value chain, a particular focus on ice, salt, firewood suppliers, and other fishing infrastructure may be needed to accurately predict the condition of the local fish supply chain. For example, in the article Salagrama and Salka (2010) noted that a lack of ice producers in rural areas is a large problem in post-harvest fish supply, which may lead to the stress of having to sell their fish products by the end of the day.

In another visualization, Salagrama and Salka (2010) highlighted the different level of access to the market that actors have depending on the mode of transportation that are available to them (see Figure 3). Fish producers only have access to the retail market, bicycle and motorcycle trader, which presumably waited until the fish producers came back on fish landing sites. Bicycle traders typically sell their product on a door-to-door basis or a different, presumably, more inland market that the producers cannot readily access. Motorcycle traders have the all the previous options while also having access to weekly market, which is a market that has a more consistent demand for fish given how it attract a lot of customers, and roadside retail which is located in larger towns and urban area. In terms of gender role, Salagrama and Salka (2010) found that women have a role on processed fish retail, and even as bicycle trader, though weirdly enough the article noted that women role in Nias is seemingly not high in the value chain compared to other Southeast Asian countries which is seemingly in contradiction to the former claim about women having role in trading.

Cultural Utilization of Dried Fish

In economic terms, fishing is an important part of Indonesians, especially communities residing in small costal villages. In their research on Bajo Mola, a small community residing in Wakatobi Regency, a small island Southeast of Sulawesi, Kusumanti et al. (2021) found that 98% of the population work in fish related enterprise. The lifestyle of becoming a fisher in Bajo Mola is entrenched even at a young age with children being brought at an early age to aid their parents in fishing. A couple of factors that was observed b Kusumanti et al. that pushed the Bajo Mola community to be dependent to fishing were low level of education and lack of governmental contribution. Given that fishing is mostly a practical and manual type of labor, lack of low level of formal education is not a barrier for success is fishing. In the lack of governmental contribution, Kusumanti et al. observed that entrepreneurs, some international, from Korea and Japan, stepped in and provided the financial investment that the government do not provide. One of the pushes that was encouraged by these investors and entrepreneurs is to produce export-viable products in the form of dried fish. From this observation, one may hypothesize that, at least in the case of Bajo Mola, dried fish in itself is not an important part of local, daily life, economy in that at a local level, fish are more commonly traded fresh. Instead, the existence of dried fish in the Bajo Mola context is explicitly only for export purposes. That being said, it could also be the case that the fish consumption in Bajo Mola before these external investments is so close to the fish production rate, in that all fish caught are consumed on a day-to-day basis. Thus, only after these investments that helped the fish production rate, which results in surplus of fish supply, that considerations of fish drying for export or long-term storage start to be brought up among the fishers in Bajo Mola.

The Indonesian government included dried salted fish as one out of nine essential food items (Astawan et al., 1994). Two possible reasons that may explain this classification is how fish is considered as a good (Rialita et al., 2019) and cheap (Swastawati et al., 2018) source of protein. Another, and perhaps, more modern medical utility of another type of dried fish product, fermented fish, as observed by Haro et al. (2020) is its potential use as an antibacterial material against Salmonella typhi. Salmonella typhi, or more commonly known by the disease that the bacteria cause, typhoid fever, is a bacteria that is prominent in areas with poor environmental sanitation and poor individual hygiene. Raw consumption of vegetable-based food and drinking unsterilized water also increases the risk of infection. Perhaps coincidentally, these risk factors are more prominent in rural areas where consumption of fermented fish is higher. In the experiment conducted by Haro et al. (2020), the researchers used Naniura, a carp based fermented fish commonly consumed by the Batak people (a term used to describe people residing in the northern part of Sumatra). Though the researchers also noted that the production of the antibacterial material is specific to the product but noting that the fermentation process is what produces the antibacterial material. In other words, other types of fermented fish are likely to also possess this property.

In terms of the type of dried fish products in Indonesia, Ali F. El Sheikha (2014) categorized the product types into three, fish sauce, fish paste, and fermented dried/salted fish. It should be noted that the list of fish products that was observed by El Sheikha is not the complete list of dried fish products in Indonesia given that the scope of the study is the whole Southeast Asia region, and not Indonesia specifically. The examples provided by El Sheikha included Bakasang, a fish sauce originated from Menado, North Sulawesi, made by fermenting small sardines, usually served with rice, red chilies, tomato, red onion, and garlic. Belachan, a type of fish paste made by adding small amount of salt on small shrimps, drying them for four to eight hours, squeezing them into a container, followed by seven days of fermentation. Terasi, a type of dried shrimp pastes usually sold in dark blocks. Ale-ale is a type of fermented shellfish popular in West Kalimantan with a slightly sour and salty taste. Wadi Betok is a type of fermented fish made using perch with the length of fermentation ranging from seven days to four months. Peda is a wet fermented mackerel fermented using salt at room temperature for three months or more.

In a study conducted on importance-performance analysis for Indonesian smoked fish products by Mastrisiswadi et al. (2018), the researchers ranked nine variables that Javanese consumers think as important when consuming smoked fish products. Those nine variables, in descending order by importance, are safety for consumption, hygiene, undamaged fish meat, flavors, freshness, typical smell, color, and price. In terms of performance, the order would look like as flavors, price, undamaged fish meat, freshness, typical smell, color, hygiene, and safety for consumption, in descending order. One of the conclusions that Mastrisiswadi et al. drew was that the typical Javanese consumer are most concerned with safety for consumption and hygiene as the two variables are rated high in importance, but low in performance. The consumers, however, are content with the undamaged fish meat and flavor variables, given how the two variables are rated high in both importance and performance. Interestingly the variable price is rated the lowest in importance, which may be inferred that, in terms of smoked fish, the flavor of the dish is more important than its availability.

Indonesian Law on Dried Fish

The Indonesian Ministry of Fishery listed their current active regulations on their website. As a part of the present research goal to investigate the effect of Indonesian national policies on dried fish production, steps were taken to extract the regulation listed on the website in order to analyze its possible impact on dried fish production. One problem that came up was that the laws were written in Indonesia. To counteract said problem, a research assistant from Indonesia was recruited to write an English summary of each law listed on the website. After reading through each of the summary listed, it was found there were no law directly pertaining to the production or regulation of dried fish written on the website. Most of the laws listed are concerned with the administrative function of the ministry such as laws on corruption and organizational hierarchy or the establishment of conservation zones. That being said there were general laws regarding processed fish production that might have impact on dried fish production. Listed here is a number of regulations that may have an impact on the dried fish production chain.

Ministerial regulation number 68/2020 on organization and testing of fish and other maritime products mentioned The Center for Testing the Application of Marine and Fishery Product, a subsidiary under the Director General of Strengthening the Competitiveness of Marine and Fishery Products that is responsible for product testing and business development consultation. Such department may be reflective of an interest on an increase on dried fish quality control to increase Indonesian product competitiveness on an international level, especially by noting that the department was created under the Director General of Strengthening the Competitiveness of Marine and Fishery Products. In terms of dried fish production however, given how it is mainly made by micro and small level processors, it is most likely the case that the department may only have minimal influence by virtue of the higher possibility that the department was created to advice larger scale fish processors.

Ministerial regulation number 37/2019 on residue control during fish production activity was made with the goal of increasing the confidence of countries that import fish produced in Indonesia. Although the content of the regulation itself was not translated, similar to the other laws in the interest of time, it could be hypothesized that the regulation would filter the quality of fish that may be exported by fish producers. On that point, even though local fish processors does not necessarily have to abide by the rule made for international export, this regulation may systematically divide the quality of fish are sold for export and for local purposes, with the former receiving the better quality fish. Similarly, ministerial regulation number 11/2019 on fish related infectious disease control that stipulates higher regulation on fish production chain by adding quarantine measures for possible fish disease carriers. Given how vulnerable fish products should generally be consumed immediately after capturing, these quarantine measures may put much delay within the dried fish production chain, and not to also account for the drop in quality that may be a result from the delay. One other possible outcome from this regulation is the extra burden on the micro and small fish producers from having to withhold their fish products which, given how small the capital for production is on these producers, have to contend with possible loses to pests from the lack of a proper, sanitized, storage.

Among the regulations there were also a number of them dedicated to the establishment of fishing ports, such as regulation number 70/2018, 69/2018, and 68/2018 on the establishment of Bulu (east Java), Pasongsongan (east Java), and Gresik (east Java) fishing ports. Although not detailed in the provided summary, it may be hypothesized that areas designated as fishing port would receive more focus, either in the form of funding from the government, or in the form of the concentration of fish supply in these ports (According to the regulation, one of the fishing ports functions is to act as fish landing sites). The concentration of market may mean that dried fish processors living in smaller villages far from the ports may have a decline in fish availability, which then would lead to the decline of dried fish production, at least on smaller villages. In similar theme with the fishing port establishment regulations, ministerial regulation number 8/2017 on implementation of integrative building on small islands and border areas may further contribute to the decline of fish supply on smaller villages due to the concentration of market. Although on the latter regulation case, it was not clear if the integration is only limited to fresh fish products or if it also includes dried fish products. Nonetheless, the small capital of smaller fish processors may mean more barriers on the processors side to distribute their product to the market without the help of third-party traders or distributors.

As observed by the research assistant in Indonesia, there are three current legal issues in the current domain of fishery law in Indonesia, namely foreign ownership of small outer islands, fish theft by foreign fishermen, and fish smuggling. While all the three areas may not directly relate to the production of dried fish, some of the implications from the disputes are reflected on a number of the regulations highlighted in the present study, which is the concentration and integration of fish market. The reason behind these centralization efforts is to reduce foreign influence on smaller islands on the fringe areas within the Indonesian border. One observation made was that the effect of foreign investment on these fringe areas, in combination with minimal investment by the Indonesian government such as what happened with the islands of Sipadan and Ligitan.

A brief review of several other ministerial websites was done as a follow-up to how few the regulations pertaining to dried fish production are within the ministry of fishery. Among the other 33 departments, three ministries, ministry of agriculture, ministry of health, and ministry of commerce, had the highest possibility of producing regulations on dried fish production. A brief overview on all of the websites showed that each of the departments had uploaded their published regulations. However, a quick search using keyword such as fish, food, food regulation, product regulation, in Indonesian, only resulted to one law that may be related to dried fish production regulation. Ministerial regulation number 942/2003 under the ministry of health on guideline regarding snack food sanitation may affect dried fish products given how several dried fish products may be consumed as snack. That being said, due to the lack of access to said regulation, there is no sure way of establishing the link between the regulation and dried fish product.

Discussion

Governmental Regulation

In terms of governmental regulation on dried fish, literature review of the department of fishery seem to show that there was a lack of interest of regulation pertaining to dried fish within the department. Comparatively, the number of laws, as identified in the previous section, that were relevant to dried fish was only a handful out of the other hundreds of regulations found in the website. This did not necessarily mean that dried fish production were generally unregulated in Indonesia. It is more likely that the regulation that do control the production of dried fish were more general in terms of its scope. If this is the case, them it would probably be better to independently search for laws that regulated the production, distribution, and consumption fish in general, and then seeing how those regulations may affect dried fish production. To this extent, the researcher was still able to identify several regulations that may impact dried fish production.

There were regulations made in the year 2020 and 2019 that try to incentivize fish processors to increase the quality of fish that were produced. Although the regulation did not specifically mention dried fish, it could be assumed that the reach of the regulation would also extend to dried fish. The department of ministry cited that an increase in fish products would also increase the competitiveness of Indonesian fish products in the international market. This, however, may adversely impact dried fish production given how the product seem to be largely consumed domestically, or even locally, rather than being sold as an import. Though, to be transparent, there were no indication how the regulation was implemented from how the regulation was written in the law summary provided by the research assistant. For example, if there are no fines attached to the enforcement of the regulation, then the effects of the law to dried fish producers, which are mainly micro to small in size, would be minimal.

Another group of regulations that may impact dried fish production are laws establishing new designated fishing ports. The implication of this law may extend to the production and distribution stage of the value chain. In terms of the production stage, the designation of fish port may mean an increase in investment in the infrastructure of these designated ports. Such investment may lead to an increase in fish production due to better access to equipment that are required to maintain fishing tools. This does not, however, necessarily mean to an increase in dried fish production. Given how fishing ports also acting as grounding areas for fish, the concentration of fish in one area may attract medium to large fish processors to buy the fish supply in the price range that not competitive to micro to small fish processors. If this was to be the case, then there would be a decrease in dried fish production, rather than an increase. Furthermore, given how dried fish production was mainly done within families with the male part of the family acting predominantly as fish producers and the female part as fish processors, new job opening that may come with the fishing ports may attract the male part of the family to work outside of the family production unit. This would also then decrease dried fish production. In terms of distribution, given how these ports also act as fish grounding sites, which effectively concentrated fish products into one location. While the concentration of fish product may be beneficial to medium to large fish processors, which typically buy in bulks, the concentration of fish product may mean a decrease in competitiveness of micro and small processors, which mainly produce dried fish products (Naamin, 1994).

Fish Consumption Patterns

Initial observations, such as the one reported by Wibowo et al. (1990) cited how dried fish products were domestically imported to Java from the other islands. It may be safe to assume that the reason why this pattern manifested was because higher number of populations in Java compared to the other islands, both at the time of the report and today. If the premise that the number of populations played a large role on the direction of domestic dried fish import, then then similar pattern could be seen today. In fact, the drive to import to Java could be even larger today compared to 1990. As noted by Fegan (1994), however, fish producers that are based in the eastern part of Indonesia do not export their fish to Java. This is due to the short shelf life of dried fish products if stored improperly. Additionally, given how dried fish processors are often limited in terms of funding, it is unlikely for them to own or rent boat capable of long term storage such as refigeration. In terms of fish producers within a single region, it could be assumed that dried fish products were produced mainly in small quantities, and sporadically in coastal villages (Naamin, 1990). Fish products are first consumed locally, surpluses are then sold to communities that are more inland.

Dried Fish Value Chain

Dried fish were mainly produced with family as the production unit with husbands acting as fish producers and wives acting as fish processors (Darma et al., 2018). This would mean that dried fish products are mainly produced by micro sized businesses (I.e., families) or small sized businesses (I.e., family cooperations). It is unlikely that dried fish are produced in bulk within a medium to large fish processing enterprise given the how other fish products such as fish canning being a more viable product to mass produce. There were governmental efforts encouraging the integration of fish producers and fish processors into a larger production unit to increase efficiency as observed by Darma et al. Outside of fish as the main ingredient of dried fish product, other products such as salt, ice, and firewood are needed (Salagrama and Salka, 2010). Fluctuations of these products may hamper dried fish production. Salagrama and Salka noted how ice, specifically, was especially rare in small rural communities given how expensive it is to maintain an ice plant in rural areas. The sale of dried fish product are mainly done on foot, on bicycle, or on motorcycles, depending on the financial condition of each production unit. As observed by Salagrama and Salka, products are typically sold from door-to-door, at weekly markets, and at retail markets. Traders that have access to motorcycle could open up their own roadside retail store.

Cultural Utilization of Dried Fish

Dried fish production was found to be important for population living in small, fringe and rural areas. Population living in these areas typically lack access to formal education. Because of this, people turn to a more practical and manual methods to survive, such as fishing. For example, Kusumanti et al. (2021) reported that the Bajo Mola community, which is located in a small island Southeast of Sulawesi, is mainly consisted of fishermen. In fact, 98% of the population work in fish related enterprise. In the case of Bajo Mola, dried fish seem to be mainly produced for export or semi long-term storage. It seemed to be the case that fish in this community are consumed not in the form of dried fish. This is probably because the environment in which the community lived in did not require bulk storage of fish given how they are accessible throughout the year.

The Indonesian government recognized dried salted fish as an essential food (Astawan et al., 1994). This is because dried fish product seems to be relatively healthy to consume, especially as a good and cheap source of food (Rialita et al., 2019; Swastawati et al., 2018). Research on dried fish product such as Naniura showed some antibacterial properties, which further support the utility of dried fish as an integral part of food in Indonesia (Haro et al., 2020). Though it should be noted that dried fish production is often done in open air, which does increase the risk of contamination, and may even nullify the benefit it has as an antibacterial material. In fact, the main concern that dried fish consumers have are safety for consumption and hygiene (Mastrisiswadi et al., 2018)

Conclusion

Looking at the value chain of dried fish production, it seems clear that dried fish product is important among communities living in coastal villages. The literature seems to point out that most distribution and consumption of dried fish are local, though there are exceptions when surpluses are high. Perhaps interestingly in the Indonesian context, there are evidence that show how fish are consumed on a day-to-day basis, which is to say that the utility of drying and fermenting to increase the shelf life of fish is secondary. Given how accessible fresh fish are due to the Indonesian climate, there was not really any need to stockpile food in storages. It perhaps the case that dried fish were produced in these communities solely for its flavor enhancing properties. This may also provide some justification on why the government do not have a specific regulation on dried fish products. Specifically, because dried fish are consumed locally and are generally too expensive to export, governmental regulation would just hamper the livelihood of these small communities, rather than help them. That is not to say that the Indonesian government do not care about the dried fish products necessarily. In fact, it was found that there are governmental interests in centralizing dried fish production to increase its production. However, perhaps there was realization in the governing body to not fix something that is not broken, especially given the longstanding history of dried fish within the diverse culture in Indonesia.

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