Authors: Idham Malik (Aquaculture Officer) and Abdillah Yunus (Local Facilitator Program Aquaculture of Pinrang Minapolitan Area)

Fish n' Blues is the first environmentally friendly seafood provider and distributor in Indonesia and a member of Seafood Savers. This is proven by Fish n' Blues' consistency in purchasing tiger shrimp from the Phronima Group, a group assisted by WWF-Indonesia's aquaculture program under JARING-Nusantara in Pinrang Regency. The Phronima Group has been assisted since late 2014, starting with the Better Management Practices (BMP) Tiger Shrimp Farming training that invites farmers to apply good tiger shrimp farming methods.

Fish n' Blues has made four purchases of Phronima Group tiger shrimp. First, on June 6, 2015 for the Seafood Festival with a purchase of 50 kilograms, second on July 4, 2015 with 26.7 kilograms, third on July 31, 2015 for the "Buy Good" Festival in Bintaro - Tangerang, with 45.59 kilograms, and the fourth time on January 23, 2016 with 75 kilograms. The purchase in January 2016 was finally fulfilled after a few months. This was due to several factors, one of which was because in August most of the assisted farmers had drained their ponds, which is done only once a year (only farmers with Phronima application). Secondly, farmers experienced a delay in the fry stocking phase after the pond drying period was completed because at the end of 2015 there was a drought caused by the weather anomaly, El Nino.

During the four deliveries of shrimp to Fish n' Blues in Jakarta, there were various technical obstacles faced by the team in the field. Each problem was discussed with Fish n' Blues in order to learn lessons for improvement in the next purchase. For example, the field team learned that no longer using newspaper as a barrier in large styrofoam boxes can damage the quality of shrimp that may be contaminated with newspaper ink. The composition of ice and tiger prawns in one styrofoam is also attempted to be 1:1 so that the quality of the prawns can be maintained until they arrive in Jakarta. For this reason, the field team has created a standard operating procedure for purchasing shrimp and will continue to make improvements to maintain the freshness and quality of the shrimp until it arrives at the hands of Fish n' Blues.

Innovative Business of Shrimp Farmers to Fish n' Blues Distributor

There are several farmers in the Phronima Group who are consistent in providing their shrimp to Fish n' Blues. One of them is Baharuddin, head of the Phronima Group, a farmer who applies Phronima natural feed for tiger shrimp rearing. Baharuddin's total harvest until January 2016 has reached 200 kg.

Baharuddin is the most innovative farmer in shrimp enlargement techniques using Phronima natural feed. For example, when facing the dry season around October 2015, Baharuddin anticipated it by doing penggelondongan (enlargement of fry up to one month old) on his pond plots. A month later, the aged shrimp were transferred to the enlargement plots at a rate of 10,000 fish per hectare. After a month of rearing, Baharuddin began to assess the natural feeding capacity of Phronima in the pond. If the capacity of Phronima is still possible, then more shrimp will be added to the pond. Thanks to this technique, Baharuddin managed to get through the dry season well. During the rainy season, Baharuddin also controls the water discharge. He lowers the water level to 20 cm to keep the temperature warm, so that the shrimp remain active. If there is an increase in water discharge due to high rainfall, Baharuddin releases water at the surface to reduce the level of fresh water in the pond.

As the head of the group, Baharuddin is very happy with the shrimp purchase made by Fish n' Blues. According to him, the purchase gives the farmers a sense of security against the possibility of selling their shrimp. In addition, they can focus on improving their tiger shrimp farming and no longer have to worry too much about the market absorption of their shrimp.