A CASE STUDY IN ANALYZING SEAWEED VALUE CHAIN IN MALUKU PROVINCEFOR ACCESSING MARKET; A LESSON LEARNED FROM MARKET ACCESS FOR FOOD SECURITY COURSE

Anytha Purwareyni Umbas*, Ridho K. Dongoran, Stenly J. Ferdinandus,
Yustina L.D. Wambrauw

Directorate of Aquaculture Production and Business Development,
Directorate General of Aquaculture, Jl. Medan Merdeka Timur No. 16,
Mina Bahari 4^th Building, 6^th Floor, Central Jakarta, Indonesia
purwareyni@yahoo.com

Small-scale seaweed farmers plays important role in seaweed development, since their production will give number in the production data.Unfortunately, they have to deal with the market access problems that could be influenced the production as well as the low bargaining power and the low level of prosperity although their business is very promising.

Regarding the market access problems, the small-scale farmers should make some effort to solve the limited access to the market, including the market information and requirement. Also, they have to deal with the middlemen who made the chain become longer and costly but affect the transactional cost. Basically, these problems occur caused by the low bargaining power of the farmers. They are deeply control by the middlemen. These kinds of problems lead to bigger problem known as the low level of prosperity of the small-scale farmers.

Unorganized farmers are one of the problems that have to be addressed first since they have low bargaining power in determine the price of their products. The presences of the middlemen are also the main problems in this value chain, regarding the issues of price and product quality as well. Action plans that can be done in overcoming this problem are increasing the awareness of farmers on the advantage of cooperation through training or workshop and create the group of farmers in voluntary basis.

The absences of the alternative marketing channels are also the problems need to be addressed since the effort of the government in promoting this business as a profitable business. To overcome this problem, an exploratory study needs to be done regarding the possibility of product innovation or market diversification.

Mitigate the negative impact of the absence of cooperation among seaweed farmers and reduce the negative impact of the absence of alternative marketing channel are becoming the strategic option that can be done to overcome the problems stated. These options can be done along with the increase of the awareness among the farmers in order to improve their livelihood as well as the involvement of Public Private Partnership to make the value chain works well.