Indonesia's plan to ban seaweed exports could backfire—hurting its own industry

Indonesia, the world's second-largest seaweed producer, plans to introduce a nationwide export ban on seaweed, following a ban at a provincial level in 2022.President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo argued in November that the ban would encourage investment in domestic seaweed processing, as part of a larger suite of export restrictions.However, my research on seaweed value chains in Indonesia suggests that an export ban on Indonesian seaweed would adversely impact domestic seaweed production. Seaweed farming is Indonesia's largest marine aquacultural activity, representing US$1.89 billion of the total $2.05 billion Indonesian marine aquaculture production annually. Over the last twenty years, it has grown rapidly and now supports the livelihoods of around 62,000 farmers, as well as many more people in coastal communities who work as casual wage laborers in the industry.An export ban is likely to lead to lower commodity prices, turning some of those farmers to other sources of income and ...