January 13, 2026 | 08:36 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia's Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) stated that it has never encountered any attempts at smuggling of fishery products through the air route. "Because the supervision at airports or air terminals is very strict," said the Director of Fisheries Resources Supervision at KKP, Halid K. Jusuf, in Jakarta on Tuesday, January 13, 2026.
Due to the strict supervision, Halid said that smugglers tend to use public ports as their entry access, such as container ports. According to him, one of the methods used by fishery product smugglers is by manipulating documents. However, he stated that, of the hundreds of perpetrators who attempted to smuggle fishery products in 2025, only three succeeded.
Despite their success, Halid mentioned that the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries continues to pursue and stop smuggling attempts during the distribution stage. Throughout 2025, Halid reported that KKP recorded 30 containers of fishery products attempting to illegally enter Indonesia. According to him, most of the smuggled products originate from China.
Halid stated that the fishery products attempted to enter from several ports such as Tanjung Priok Port in North Jakarta, Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya, and Belawan Port in Medan. He mentioned that the smuggled commodities are not only fish, but also raw materials, feed, and fish medicine. He estimated that the potential loss to the country due to fishery product smuggling practices throughout 2025 reached Rp9.3 billion.
He also warned that fishery product smuggling has negative impacts on the sustainability of the domestic industry, potentially suppressing the prices of local fish and harming businesses that have been abiding by the rules.
The Head of the Maritime Resources Supervision Base, Sigit Bintoro, has been regularly conducting socialization, both directly and online, to businesses engaged in illegal importation. Instead of pursuing criminal proceedings, Sigit said the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries prioritizes administrative sanctions against the perpetrators. "For example, paying administrative fines and being asked to immediately process the licensing procedures," he said.
However, he did not rule out the possibility of criminal sanctions for smugglers if they continue to violate the law. According to Sigit, criminal penalties are a last resort when administrative sanctions are insufficient to deter law-breaking perpetrators or importers.
Read: Marine Ministry Reveals Indonesia Still Imports Mackerel
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