Increasing production of soft-shell crab in Central Java, Indonesia

The local farmers in Pemalang regency in the Central Java province have slowly shifted to the production of softshell crabs, as opposed to the production of farmed shrimp that used to be the strategic commodity from this region. The change in preference has been mostly attributed to the high market demand for softshell crab that is supported by a stable selling price, in comparison to the price of shrimp that is highly volatile and can sometimes be affected by the bargaining price in the market that is now dominated by big-size manufacturers nationally. Currently, the farmers in this province can collectively produce up to 25 MT of softshell crab in a week that is distributed to the consumers across Central Java and the neighboring provinces. Moreover, the farmers in this province expect that they can expand the market overseas by 2021, as softshell crab from this region has also garnered the interest by buyers neighboring countries such as Malaysia and the Philippines.