Opportunities of seafood processing development in southeast Maluku District

Seafood is an excellence of sea commodities, it content a great compound of protein, minerals and unsaturated fatty acids, that carachterize by the very high biological value so it is good for health. This excellence can be used to diversify the variety of processed products both for food and non-food products such as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Optimizing the marine products utilization as a raw material of various healthy products can impact on the increase of income and living standards of the fishermen and communities along the of sore. The aim of this study was to inventory the potency of marine products in Southeast Maluku district in order to know the opportunity of seafood processed development. Research method used in this research was descriptive or exploratory, by survey approaches, field observation and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Southeast Maluku have an ecological dynamics, so it enabled to arise a wide variety of ecosystems with a distingtive diversity and character, however, there were no the balance of fishing, aquaculture production compared to processed product. It was not any attention of the government to the fishing and farmers communities in mentoring them on how to manufacture the processed product from the catches or aquaculture. While the potency of the seafood commodities in Southeast Maluku district is abundant both the types and the numbers (fish and non-fish including endemic species), in fact, the processing aspect of the product is still very low. The total of fiheries production in Southeast Maluku District recorded in 2011 were 82,233.00 tons consist of catch fisheries and aquaculture production 39,010.00 and 38,350.00 tons respectivelly. Meanwhile, the processed product were still very low at around 4,873.00 tons. Development opportunities of seafood processing is still promising, considering a plenty of raw materials available and the competition of processed product in the market is still low.