Authored by : Fitri Aulia | 1 December 2020

Indonesia Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) has actively continue their commitment to develop businesses and support local market in the marine and fisheries sector despite the huge challenges faced in the midst of the global pandemic. Minister Edhy explained that the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a change in the pattern of public spending at large. Not only that, he claimed that the pandemic has also caused changes in people’s consumption patterns, including fish consumption patterns.

Pandemic Boosts Online Shopping Activities

Referring to the Social Demographic Impact of Covid-19 Survey from the Central Statistics Agency, food shopping activity has increased sharply by 51 percent during pandemic (BPS, 2020).

This consumption pattern is in line with the global trend, where cooking and eating at home has become the trend for everyone due to the need of physical distancing. This automatically increases food spending, both raw food materials and ready for consumption.

Specifically, in April 2020, BPS Data shows that 46 percent of respondents in Indonesia admitted that the increase in online shopping activity was used to buy groceries.

Currently, the use of internet-based shopping applications and goods delivery services is increasingly popular in the society. Edhy then proceed to explain that the processed fish products that are ready to cook, ready to eat, canned fish, value added products such as fish balls, otak-otak are all increased by demand in the society.

As to deal with this, government shows an effort to increase their support assistance to SMEs in fisheries industry through launching the “Indonesian Marine Market Program” as well as collaborating with state-owned enterprises (namely PT.Perinus) to carry out digital transformation in the fisheries market in Indonesia.

Indonesian Marine Market program

In 6th November 2020, The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) has officially launched  the Indonesian Marine Market Program, as a part of the Proudly Made in Indonesia program, where it has collaborated with 1,355 Small and Medium Enterprises (UKM) to join the online market on e-commerce sites.

Products Supported by Indonesian Marine Market Program (Source : Pasar Laut Indonesia)

Through this program, the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries will provide intensive guidance and facilitate marine and fisheries SMEs in increasing access to market their products through the digital platform. This will be implemented with providing an online marketplace (Visit: http://pasarlaut.com) to sell fisheries products, as well as giving the local SMEs trainings about digital marketing (one of it also given through the webinar series).

Later, this program will also aim to increase the competitiveness of local products. Starting from standardization of production, packaging design, access to finance to marketing access, all are provided by the government to improve the lives of SMEs and fishermen.

Webinar Series held by Indonesian Marine Market Program (Source : Pasar Laut Indonesia)

People do not have to bother selling or buying fish from local market because it can be done from home. In other words, government endeavors includes providing easy access for both local SMEs and people in general to both get a benefit and easiness from this program, as well as strengthening the national fisheries production system to sustain the needs of the processing industry in a sustainable manner.

Embracing the Digital Marketing Platform

The government has partnered with digital marketing platforms such as Tanihub, Aruna, Gojek and Grab to promote their goals in this program. As for in this journery, Gojek has held a virtual training on 28-29 October 2020, while Grab and Aruna are also working on their schedule for their training for SMEs member selected in this program.

To further add, Artati Widiarti, head of the Directorate General of Strengthening the Competitiveness of Marine and Fisheries Products (PDSPKP) even claimed that other platforms such as Shopee and Bukalapak , have had the same commitment to support marine and fisheries SMEs that are members of the Indonesian Marine Market although they have not yet officially signed a cooperation agreement with the Directorate General of PDSPKP (This information was gathered from KKP Official News Site (25/10).

Quoting from KKP News Site (2020, Visit Source : https://kkp.go.id/djpdspkp/artikel/24222-aksi-)  this commitment was demonstrated by a virtual training held by Shopee for 84 SMEs who are members of the Indonesian Marine Market on October 16^th -19^th 2020.

This event provide SMEs training materials including how to open a shop, shop settings, account settings, product settings, free postage registration, product photos, shipping arrangements, product pricing and payment (account) settings. After the training, the Shopee Team will also provide assistance to SMEs, including monitoring the obstacles faced in the onboard process and during selling at Shopee. For SMEs who are interested in getting additional training, Shopee provides an Advanced Class (Bimbel Shopee) which will be held regularly and will be adjusted to the location of the city.

PT. Perinus to Contribute Digital Transformation in Fisheries Industry

Tukato Seafood (Source : perinus.co.id)

In response to the current trend, in which everything shall provide easy access to online platform, PT Perikanan Nusantara (Perinus) also shows their contribution by selling their fish products online, under the brand name of “Tukato Seafood” in the midst of the corona virus pandemic (Covid-19).

Before we get to there, here are some interesting facts about PT. Perinus :  

PT. Perinus

PT. Perikanan Nusantara (Persero) was initially formed based from the merger of 4 (four) state-owned fisheries, namely PT Tirta Raya Mina (Persero), PT Perikanan Samodra Besar (Persero), PT Perikani (Persero) and PT Usaha Mina (Persero) which was determined by the Extraordinary GMS in 2005.

Having Jakarta as their headquarter, it also has a total of 10 branches across the country, Those 10 branches areas includes Padang,Makassar,Gorontalo,Bitung,Bacan,Sorong,Ambon,Beno,Surabaya, and Tegal.

Perinus is a State-Owned Enterprise with business activities in fisheries from pre-production, production, processing, and up to distribution. To support this, they have various facilities to support its business activities, such as cold storage, ice factories and capture vessels (Details could be seen below).

Perinus Company Profile 2020

About Tukato Seafood

The Tukato Seafood products offered include tuna steak, mackerel steak, ebi furai, octopus, snapper, squid ring and various other frozen seafoo  d products with affordable price. Its frozen products price range varies, starting from IDR 40.000 – IDR 80.000.

Apart from using social media as a market place, PT. Perinus also collaborates with several existing electronic trading companies (e-commerce), namely Grab to sell  their quality fish products. Not only that,you will also find Tukato Seafood at other platform such as Shopee,Tokopedia,and Bukalapak.

Tukato Seafood in Shopee and Tokopedia

With the massive change of  people purchasing behavior in 2020, covering the raised amount of them who less willing to physically visit grocery stores thus raising the demand for an online shopping, it will be interesting to see how many of the new online grocery orders stay online after the pandemic in the future.

Reference

Statistik, B. P. (2020). Hasil Survei Sosial Demografi Dampak Covid-19 . BPS.

Kementerian Kelautan dan Perikanan (KKP). (2020). Manfaatkan Peluang di Masa Pandemi, Menteri Edhy Buka Akses Permodalan untuk Entrepreneur Milenial. Retrieved from KKP News Site: https://kkp.go.id/artikel/19957-manfaatkan-peluang-di-masa-pandemi-menteri-edhy-buka-akses-permodalan-untuk-entrepreneur-milenial

Kementerian Kelautan dan Perikanan (KKP). (2020). Aksi KKP bersama Platform Pemasaran Digital, Perkuat Pasar Laut Indonesia. Retrieved from https://kkp.go.id/djpdspkp/artikel/24222-aksi-kkp-bersama-platform-pemasaran-digital-perkuat-pasar-laut-indonesia

Ekonomi Bisnis. (2020, June 23). Ubah Pola Bisnis, BUMN Perikanan Ini Mulai Jualan Online. Retrieved from https://ekonomi.bisnis.com/read/20200623/99/1256635/ubah-pola-bisnis-bumn-perikanan-ini-mulai-jualan-online