Indonesia resumes lobster larvae exports despite sustainability, trade concerns

The Indonesian government is resuming a controversial policy of exporting lobster larvae — the latest chapter in an eight-year saga that began over concerns for wild lobster stocks and led to a fisheries minister being jailed for corruption. The country’s current fisheries minister, Sakti Wahyu Trenggono, said recently that the decision to reinstate the export policy was to capitalize on the global multimillion-dollar lobster trade. The government initially banned exports of lobster larvae in 2016 to prevent the overharvesting of wild stocks from the country’s rich waters. For now, exports are permitted only to Vietnam, whose lobster-farming industry produces around 1,600 metric tons a year of premium-grade lobster grown from mostly imported larvae. Sakti previously suggested that much of the wild-caught lobster larvae supplied to Vietnam was most likely smuggled out of Indonesian waters. “We can’t fight against [lobster smuggling],” Sakti said at a press conference in Jakarta on ...