Sector
Fishery
Indonesia, boasting the title of the world’s largest archipelagic country with a vast sea area of 5.8 million square kilometers, stands as one of the largest producers and suppliers in the global fisheries market. The abundance of sea area provides Indonesia with a wealth of fisheries products, making fisheries a national leading sector in the country.
View moreOther Sectors
Fishery
Indonesia, boasting the title of the world’s largest archipelagic country with a vast sea area of 5.8 million square kilometers, stands as one of the largest producers and suppliers in the global fisheries market. The abundance of sea area provides Indonesia with a wealth of fisheries products, making fisheries a national leading sector in the country.
There are 23 regions where fisheries stand out as a leading sector, supporting local economies and providing food security. These regions encompass Aceh, Bengkulu, Riau, Lampung, South Sumatra, Central Java, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and North Kalimantan. Other regions include Central Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, West Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, Gorontalo, Maluku, North Maluku, Papua, West Papua, and Bangka Belitung.
In 2022, Indonesia’s fisheries sector contributed a total of Rp505 trillion to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Building this strong foundation, the country set an ambitious target of reaching US$7.2 billion in fishery exports by the end of 2023. Previously, total fishery product exports had hovered around US$5 billion to US$6 billion.
Supporting the sector’s contribution to the country’s GDP is its production. Throughout the third quarter of 2023, Indonesia’s fisheries production totaled 24.74 million tons. This figure includes both capture fisheries and aquaculture. In aquaculture, the main commodities are seaweed cultivation and shrimp cultivation, while in capture fisheries, the main commodities are tuna, skipjack tuna, and mackerel tuna.
Furthermore, Indonesia’s fisheries sector is experiencing a surge in investment. By the third quarter of 2023, the sector had attracted a total of Rp9.56 trillion in investment, with significant contributions from a mix of domestic sources at Rp5.32 trillion, foreign investors at Rp1.4 trillion, and credit sources at Rp2.84 trillion. Notably, China is the largest foreign investor, contributing Rp370.74 billion, followed by Malaysia with Rp240.4 billion, and Switzerland with Rp152.89 billion, highlighting the increasing international interest in Indonesia’s fisheries potential.
While Indonesia boasts impressive fisheries production and growing investments in its fisheries sector, it is vital to uphold fisheries regulations. These regulations ensure that this valuable sector thrives alongside healthy marine ecosystems. It is reported that Indonesia is scheduled to enforce a new fisheries policy in 2025, which will see quotas assigned to industrial, local, and non-commercial fishers across six designated fishing zones, covering all 11 fisheries management areas (FMAs) in Indonesia. The new quota system responds to a worrying rise in overexploited FMAs, which have increased to 53 percent from 44 percent in 2017.
Latest News
Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) has temporarily frozen Indonesia’s February market status review and warned of a potential downgrade from Emerging Market to Frontier Market, citing persistent structural and governance weaknesses in the equity market. Key concerns include opaque ownership structures, limited disclosure of ultimate beneficial owners, and significant price distortions in several heavily weighted stocks, particularly conglomerate- and state-owned enterprise-linked names, which have pushed the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) higher without corresponding improvements in fundamentals.
MSCI has also pointed to weak enforcement against market manipulation and coordinated price formation, which it views as undermining market integrity and investability.
The announcement immediately rattled markets. After MSCI froze rebalancing due to investability concerns, the JCI plunged 7.35 percent to close at 8,320.56 on Jan. 28, falling well below the 8,880–8,780 support range ahead of the market open. In response, the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) and the Financial Services Authority (OJK) stressed their ongoing coordination with MSCI, highlighting steps to improve transparency, including the publication of more comprehensive free-float data and continued engagement to address MSCI’s feedback rather than dismiss it.
Concerns over price manipulation are not new to policymakers. In October 2025, Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa announced that the government was intensifying efforts to crack down on and prosecute individuals involved in market manipulation, commonly referred to as “pump-and-dump” schemes. At the time, the IDX requested fiscal incentives to support the market, but Purbaya declined to grant them immediately, arguing that incentives should only follow a cleanup of manipulative practices to ensure adequate protection for retail investors.
The stakes are high. MSCI is a global index provider whose country classifications, developed, emerging, or frontier, serve as benchmarks for trillions of dollars in active and passive investment funds worldwide. Indonesia’s inclusion in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index determines its eligibility for investment by a large pool of institutional investors whose mandates are strictly tied to that classification.
The MSCI episode has, unsurprisingly, intensified a growing perception among market participants that Indonesia’s financial watchdog has failed to keep pace with the mounting structural risks in the equity market. For years, foreign investors have raised concerns over selective enforcement, tolerance of extreme price movements in illiquid stocks, and the absence of credible deterrents against coordinated trading and insider-driven speculation.
MSCI’s explicit reference to weak enforcement and price distortions has now effectively elevated these critiques to the international stage, lending them far greater weight than domestic complaints from analysts or minority shareholders.
These concerns have been further amplified by the recent decision of OJK chief commissioner Mahendra Siregar to step down, with rumors from investors circulating that Mahendra had not been prepared to manage the capital market.
