By: Mohammad Budi Santosa - Fisheries Officer WWF-Indonesia

Since joining the Seafood Savers Program in June 2015, PT Mustika Minanusa Aurora (MMA) has started to implement an aquaculture program (Aquaculture Improvement Program/AIP) towards meeting the ASC-Shrimp standard in 11 selected tiger shrimp supply chains.

An important component of the AIP, and an absolute requirement for PT MMA's tiger shrimp products to meet international trade standards, is the implementation of a product traceability system. To date, a traceability system is the most effective solution to provide information and ensure the origin of the products produced. Each year, PT MMA can produce up to 3,600 tons of tiger shrimp products from more than 50 supply chains across Bulungan Regency and Tarakan City, North Kalimantan. Without a good traceability system in place, the risk of losing track of the origin of the products produced will be even greater. To anticipate this, PT MMA developed a traceability Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for tiger shrimp products. This was done to assist the company and the overseas buyer market for exports in tracing the origin of the tiger shrimp they purchased and other related information.

The traceability SOP is an extension of PT MMA's existing purchasing system, adding information on the farm owner, location, and farm name of the tiger shrimp. The information is coded using a number, then printed and attached to the export-ready frozen tiger shrimp packaging carton. Although it may seem simple, the implementation of a traceability system in the field actually requires a very high commitment from farmers, collectors, and processing plants not to mix and match tiger shrimp products from hundreds of farms every day.

Until now, the implementation of this procedure has been limited to supply chains that have registered with the Seafood Savers Program. However, PT MMA is committed to applying it to all tiger shrimp products received into the company if the procedure works well in the next few years.