TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Edhy Prabowo has distanced himself from the previous Minister Susi Pudjiastuti in terms of the lobster seeds export ban. Signs suggest that Edhy will reopen the export under an imposed quota.

He defends that his move will help elevate the added value of lobster cultivation at the farmers’ level.

“Why not take the steps to permit cultivation, we can hand export permits of lobster seeds under a quota,” said Edhy in the Ministry’s work meeting at Hotel Borobudur in Central Jakarta today.

This idea, he says, came after the discovery of lobster seeds in the hands of Vietnamese traders, which he says 80 percent of them originates back to Indonesia.

Edhy explained that the worst part of the finding is that the Ministry believes the lobsters are not directly sent to Vietnam from Indonesia, but stops first in Singapore before it is sold at Rp139,000 per lobster to Vietnam.

This, he says, is a stark contrast to value of lobster seeds sold from cultivators of Rp5,000. He believes that local lobster cultivators will be able to reek benefits from selling lobsters at the price on par to those sold to Vietnamese lobster seed importers.

In the meeting Edhy Prabowo urged for the Ministry to hold a study regarding lobster cultivation taking into account if the export quotas is eventually permitted.

FRANCISCA CHRISTY ROSANA