Featherback Fishery in Barito Kuala District, Indonesia: Potency, Business Opportunity and Challenge

ornamental Abstract: Barito Kuala District is the largest producer of the featherback (Notopterus chitala) in South Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. It contributes about 42.29% of total regional fisheries production. Recently, supply and demand of raw material for fish chips processing business is completely dependent on the catch from the rivers. Ironically the capture fishery production for featherback tends to decline, which absolutely affecting on production volume and selling expense of the fish products. No commercial aquaculture supports this business, so far. Data on capture fishery, fish processing business and fish farming were tabulated and analyzed using descriptive method. There was a great market opportunity for featherback chips in this area of study, where the demand of fish chips (36 tons/year) was six times higher than the supply to the market (6 tons/year). The average annual profit received by the producer was USD 897. The Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), and Net Benefit Cost Ratio (Net B/C) were USD 2,796, 137%, and 4.59 with the Payback Period (PP) value was 8 months 15 days, indicating business was considered feasible and profitable, as well as has the favorable prospect. To increase the values, the culture business should be promoted. An attempt was made by Freshwater Fish Culture Center Mandiangin to culture them; however, the result are still being challenged to overcome this problem. The ideal interconnection of the three key issues was further discussed.