China can make Indonesian seaweed prices go up and down

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Seaweed prices in Indonesia are still fluctuating, aka not yet stable. One of the triggers is China. How come? China is the world's largest importer of seaweed in the form of raw materials. The Bamboo Curtain country also imports a large amount of Indonesian seaweed. Apart from Indonesia, China also imports seaweed from Chile, the Philippines and Peru. Deputy Chair of the Indonesian Seaweed Industry Association (Astruli) Pontas Tambunan explained that the decline in prices for seaweed commodities cannot be separated from demand which is indeed decreasing, including from China. "So if demand goes down, then the price will also go down," said Pontas when met at the Jakarta Ministry of Industry Office, Tuesday (25/6/2026). "This means that if China's (seaweed stock) goes down, then (the price) will go up," he added. For this reason, according to him, the government's steps to encourage downstreaming are the right thing to maintain the stability of seaweed ...