Indonesian Canned Tuna as Indonesia’s Fishery Export Commodity to Japan

Classical realists assume that human nature is self-centered and egotistic. Realism in international relations clearly stated that national interests are the most important thing to pursue in order to maintain national survivability. In order to pursue their national interests, nations must maximize their power. Classical realists focus on nations as the primary actors, which are rational and driven by their self-interests. Unlike classical realists, structural realists (neorealists) recognized non-state actors. Though international trade is not realists' main concern, it can be analyzed using the neoliberalism perspective. Which neorealists argue that international trade is a process of the liberalized economy as a process that creates a positive-sum game, meaning that one states’ win, can be other states’ win too, regardless of the sum of advantage.

Indonesia is the largest tuna-exporting country in the world (as per 2020), Indonesia and Japan are bonded in various international economic cooperations which were embodied in IJEPA. The initiation of this strategic partnership was initiated in 2007 where President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe signed the treaty document of IJEPA. With the enactment of this treaty and the new regional concept is known as Indo-Pacific, Indonesia has the potential to expand its market partially in the fishery sector, specifically Indonesian tuna export. Bilateral cooperation is conducted to minimize and reduce tariff and non-tariff trade barriers. The Japanese market is hard-to-breach due to its protectionism which is embodied in the high qualification and standardization of the products.

Source: Liputan6.com

Indonesia is given a geographically-strategic position which is located between two continents and two oceans, the Indian and the Pacific, making Indonesia has its vast fishery potential. With 10,2 million tons per year of fishery production placing Indonesia as the second-largest fish producer in the world, below China. (FAO, 2020). Indonesia could have maximized this sector as one of its economic potentials. Partially, Tuna. In 2019As of 2020, Indonesia placed first among tuna exporting countries with 14.06% export worth USD 192.09 million.  Japan has high tuna demands and the supply is not enough to provide the demands. That is why Japan trade with other countries. The transaction of tuna export-import between two countries is facilitated under the framework of the IJEPA agreement.

No.	Countries	Export Percentage	Export Value (million USD)
1.	Indonesia	14.06%	USD 192.09 mil
2.	Vietnam	12.49%	USD 170.59 mil
3.	South Korea	12.13%	USD 165.79 mil
4.	Malta	11.17%	USD 152.55 mil
5.	Spain	9.07%	USD 123.94 mil
6.	China	6.62%	USD 90.41 mil
7.	Turkey	5.3%	USD 72.43 mil
8.	Morocco	4.11%	USD 56.14 mil
9.	Philippines	2.29%	USD 39.88 mil
10.	Italy	2.21%	USD 29 mil

(Source: Tridge, 2021)

There are many factors that have caused countries to trade through export and import, the main factor is the difference of natural resources, production, and needs. Japan is the largest market for Indonesian Tuna export because Japan ‘naturally’ has a high fish consumption demand. Indonesia has many fishery commodities other than tuna such as Prawn (USD 334,94 million), Skipjack (USD 133,26 million), Crabs (USD 36,47 million), Squid, and Octopus (USD 17,9 million), and other fishery commodities. The data are taken from The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of the Republic of Indonesia, as of 2018, the sum of Indonesia’s fishery export value reached USD 4,86 billion. Japan is the second-main trade partner after the US (USD 1.876, million) with 676,58 million export value.

There is an inconsistency in Indonesia’s fishery export to Japan. Data derived from Statistics Indonesia (BPS) from 2018 to 2020 is marked as dynamic. In 2018, the export value of fishery export to Japan is USD 16,19 million (2.832 metric tons). In 2019, the export value is decreased to USD 12,14 million (2.265 metric tons). Even though the pandemic hits, Indonesia experienced an increase of export value to Japan in 2020 to USD 15,07 million (3.006 metric tons).

The Japan domestic market share for canned products according to JCFM (Japan Canned Food Market) in 2018 is USD 5 billion and has projected will be having an annual increase to 4,6% or USD 6,6 billion in 2024. Japan is placed 8^th among the world’s canned tuna importers below the US, Italy, Spain, France, England, and Netherlands, with a market share of 4,5%. In terms of canned tuna market share, Thailand is sure possessed more than 50% of Japan’s canned tuna market share. Indonesia is placed second with 20%.

No.	Countries	Import market share	Import value
1.	Thailand	57%	USD 214,4 mil
2.	Indonesia	20%	USD 73,9 mil
3.	Filipina	16%	USD 58,7 mil
4.	Vietnam	4%	USD 16,4 mil
5.	China	2%	USD 7,5 mil

(Source: Tridge, 2021)

Using the corridor of IJEPA, Indonesia must take advantage and maximize its economic potential through fisheries, partially canned tuna exporting. Through IJEPA, both countries will be given many trade advantages such as market liberalization, market access increment, and the deletion of trade barriers.

References:

FAO. (2020). The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2020. Sustainability in action. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.4060/ca9229en

Tridge. (2021). Overview of Indonesia’s Export to Japan.