Jakarta, August 28, 2017 - WWF-Indonesia appreciates the achievements of PT Mustika Minanusa Aurora (PT MMA) which successfully achieved the first Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) sustainable fisheries ecolabel certification in Indonesia for tiger shrimp commodities.

""We are very proud to get the first ASC certificate for tiger shrimp in Indonesia. We hope that this ASC certificate will help improve the marketing of our tiger shrimp abroad and benefit the farmers here. We will continue to add more farmers to our ASC certification program," said Wellyono Hiu, Raw Material Purchasing Director of PT MMA.

This type of shrimp is native to Indonesia and is a mainstay export commodity for Indonesia. The certified tiger shrimp products are produced by two community-scale farms owned by Rusli and Suminto/H. Dahari in Bulungan Regency, North Kalimantan. By applying a traditional system, without aeration and without the use of feed, the ponds are able to produce up to 20 tons of tiger shrimp per year. PT MMA, a shrimp freezing company based in Tarakan, North Kalimantan Province, has registered the Giant Tiger Prawn (Penaeus monodon) cultivated in the two ponds for export to Japan.

Compliance with ASC standards for shrimp commodities shows that PT MMA and its farmers are able to protect important habitats such as mangrove land, reduce threats to biodiversity, maintain water quality, and minimize the spread of disease in shrimp farming. This breakthrough also proves that traditional community-scale farming is able to penetrate and compete with industrial-scale farms to meet international certification standards.

WWF-Indonesia, through the Seafood Savers program, has assisted PT MMA in the aquaculture fisheries improvement program scheme in Tarakan, North Kalimantan Province. During the fisheries improvement process, the activities carried out include the improvement and preservation of the environment around the pond through mangrove rehabilitation activities, prevention of protected animal hunting and recording shrimp farming activities. In addition to the physical improvement of the pond environment, social issues are also an aspect of concern, especially related to pond workers and communities living around the pond. PT MMA also received support from the Tarakan City Government through the Tarakan City Marine and Fisheries Service.

Wawan Ridwan, Director of WWF-Indonesia's Coral Triangle Program, assessed that PT MMA's success in obtaining ASC ecolabel certification can be a model for implementing a collaborative aquaculture management policy towards sustainability. The synergy between fisheries industry players (companies and farmers), non-governmental organizations, and the government will bring the process of marine resource management to its goal of improving and improving the quality of fisheries resources so that they can be enjoyed sustainably. In the shrimp farming improvement program, PT MMA has involved every actor in the shrimp supply chain and included the role of shrimp importers and retailers in Japan in improving environmental quality at the production level.

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Editor's Note:

- SEAFOOD SAVERS is a business-to-business platform initiated by WWF-Indonesia to implement efforts to improve fisheries in Indonesia that refer to MSC and ASC ecolabel standards through fisheries improvement programs. For more information visit www.seafoodsavers.org.

- ASC or Aquaculture Stewardship Council is an international non-profit organization that develops third-party certification schemes for sustainable capture and aquaculture fisheries. ASC's mission is to realize sustainable and responsible aquaculture practices. For more information, visit https://www.asc-aqua.org/

- Indonesia is currently one of the highest shrimp producing countries in the world. Indonesia's shrimp commodities compete with India, Vietnam, Ecuador, China, Thailand, and Argentina. The main market share of shrimp exports targets Japan, the United States, and countries in the European region. According to data released by the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), Indonesian shrimp exports reached 136.3 thousand tons with a value of US$1.13 billion from January to August 2016. The volume of shrimp exports increased by 6.84%, while the value of shrimp exports increased by 3.75%.

For more information, please contact:
- Abdullah Habibi, Aquaculture & Fisheries Improvement Manager, WWF-Indonesia
Email: ahabibi@wwf.id, Hp: +62811-8114-193