Competitiveness identification of fisheries export in Indonesia

Abstract

Since the implementation of AFTA in 2003 and ACFTA in 2004, the fisheries sector is becoming discussed increasingly. AFTA and ACFTA is the door for international trade, especially import and export activities in Indonesia specifically in the fisheries sector. Besides, this sector is one of the labour-intensive sectors that absorbs a significant workforce. To prevent decreasing in export fisheries, competitiveness can be used as an indicator of trade level. This paper analysed the competitive and comparative advantage of Indonesian fisheries products for export destination country such as United States, Japan, ASEAN, China, and the European Union. Data used in this study were retrieved from BPS and World Bank between 2012 to 2017. This paper used several measurement methods to capture comparative advantage measures namely Trade Specialization Index (TSI), Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) and Export Product Dynamics (EPD) methods. If fisheries products prove high competitiveness, it can be expected to continue to exist and consistently grow. The results of this study indicate that competitiveness in fisheries sector still increases and encourages domestic production, with the end goal in public welfare. So that in the future, fisheries sector become one of the leading sectors in Indonesia.