Interview: Ardi Budiono, President Director PT Suri Tani Pemuka

Ardi Budiono is President Director of PT Suri Tani Pemuka (STP), Aquaculture Division of JAPFA Group.

INTERVIEW with Ardi Budiono

AQ: Please tell us about yourself. What has been your journey in aquafeeds? How did you get to where you are today?

AB: I am President Director of STP, Aquaculture Division of JAPFA, one of the leading agri-food companies in Asia. Based in Jakarta, I joined JAPFA over 20 years ago and have led the Aquaculture Division since 2017. Prior to leading the Aquaculture Division, I served in various managerial positions as Head of Feed for JAPFA India and, previously, as Operations Manager in the aquaculture operations. Now I am responsible for the company’s increasing development and expansion efforts, both domestically and internationally in emerging markets.

AQ: STP is known as one of the few fully integrated shrimp operators in Indonesia, and one of the biggest. What is the scope and size of the business?

AB: We are proudly the market leader in the aquaculture industry in Indonesia. STP focuses on integrated aquaculture and operates aquafeed mills, shrimp hatcheries and ponds, freshwater fish hatcheries, tilapia grow-out and seafood processing facilities.

Our operations cover customers’ needs and inquiries from all over Indonesia.

Upstream, we operate five aquafeed mills in Lampung, Gresik and Banyuwangi in East Java, Medan and Purwakarta in West Java. We also operate shrimp hatcheries in Aceh, Canti in Lampung, Anyer in Banten, Indramayu in West Java, Banyuwangi in East Java, Singaraja and Negara in Bali, Sumbawa and Makassar, while our freshwater fish hatcheries are in Jogjakarta, Purwakarta and West Kalimantan.

Midstream, we operate shrimp ponds in Bomo, Karang Tekok and Situbondo in East Java. We also operate tilapia hatcheries and grow-out in Simalungun, Medan. Downstream, we operate three processing, cold storage and value-added facilities for both retail and B2B markets, tilapia processing in Simalungun, Medan, and fish processing in Banyuwangi, East Java.

To support the success of our farmer customers, we offer a full array of customer and technical services through our supporting departments such as Shrimp Farm Technician (SFT), Fish Farm Technician (FFT) and Aquaculture Technology Development (ATD).

As part of our approach of being a total solution provider for our customers and partners, we perform research and development in various aspects of the value chain through our JAPFA Aquaculture Research Center (JAR). The JAR facilities are located in Banyuwangi for aquaculture research, in Purwakarta for aquaculture technology where we focus on the latest technologies for sustainable aquaculture, and in Cianjur for nutrition research.

AQ: Is most of the company's feed for its own farms and hatcheries, or are external feed sales an important part of the business?

AB: Most of our feed sales are to our external customers, and only a minor portion is for internal usage.

AQ: How does STP support its farmer customers?

AB: STP’s vision is to become a total solution provider for our stakeholders in the aquaculture industry. Our mission is to support our customers in achieving performance and profitable business through a farmer-oriented approach, trusted value-added products and top-quality standards. In line with our vision, we provide high-quality feed, high-quality shrimp fry (SPF) and fish fingerlings with traceable quality. Our shrimp farm technical (SFT) and fish farm technician (FFT) teams are dedicated to supporting our shrimp and fish farmer customers both on-site and off-site with specific support services, such as water quality testing and water dissolve analysis, culture condition analysis, harvest data analysis, feeding program, feeding technique and feed storage training and farm management SOPs, among others.

All these functions play a significant role to support the success of both our aquaculture customers as well as our own operations. In addition, STP also has an aquaculture Mobile Diagnostic Lab to help customers access shrimp farming laboratory services. Through this mobile lab, customers can check their shrimps faster on-site.

AQ: 2021 marks Japfa’s 50th anniversary. With five aquafeed mills strategically located across Indonesia, do you plan to expand to other markets?

AB: Fish consumption in Indonesia is significantly increasing and we believe that aquaculture can become another major pillar for the JAFPA group in addition to poultry, swine and dairy. To support this development, we continue to grow the feed business by expanding the range of feed products as well as increasing the production capacity of existing feed mills or with new locations. We are also expanding our shrimp hatchery business with increased and continued supply to our farmer customers. As the brand is getting stronger, we plan to expand in India and Vietnam through our sister companies.

AQ: Japfa participated in the F3 Challenge in 2017. What are the main goals achieved by STP since then to get fish-free feeds?

AB: For the past three years, we have been successfully shifting from high to less fishmeal feed. We substantially reduced dietary fishmeal from 15% to 8% without compromising the growth performance and the sales of our feed product have increased tremendously. When it was first introduced in 2018, the sales were only 24% of the total shrimp feed sales volume. Through a strong communication campaign and support by our internal technical team on the importance of using less fishmeal feed for more sustainable and responsible farming, we tripled the sales up to 72% of the total shrimp feed product sales volume by August 2021.

AQ: Sustainability is key to many feed company’s agendas. What plans does STP have to lower its carbon footprint, or achieve other sustainability goals?

AB: We are committed to managing our aquaculture activities sustainably to meet the market demand for sustainable aquaculture products while, at the same time, minimizing the impact on the environment. Every year, we commit to improving our carbon footprint throughout our operations. Our carbon footprint from emissions, waste and water use is audited and reported regularly to the competent authorities.

For instance, in our feed mills, our expert nutritionists utilize advanced technology such as Near Infrared Reflectance (NIR) to develop balanced feed formulation and, at the same time, improve production efficiency. We also implement automation in our feed mills to achieve higher efficiency rates.

We managed to source 55% of the fish oil supplies locally and continuously strive to reduce imports. In addition, we maximize the use of condensate water for the boilers that can save water use by up to 20% and simultaneously reduce the energy usage for preheating machines.

Besides that, following the rece nt disease occurrence in shrimp farms in Indonesia due to improper design of wastewater treatment facilities (WWT) within the farm, we are conducting seminars and meetings with farmers to highlight the importance of a sustainable design of WWT.

AQ: The Indonesian government plans to develop a model for sustainable shrimp farming. What are the main challenges to achieve it?

AB: The key factors for a successful sustainable shrimp farming area are good quality of shrimp feed, SPF broodstock and shrimp fry or post-larvae (PL), the implementation of biosecurity and a well-executed WWT system in shrimp farming. Besides that, the availability of a good location and qualified manpower are also required.

In line with the government program to make Indonesia the first global shrimp producer by 2024, STP believes that if all stakeholders work closely together, Indonesia can be a major shrimp producer globally.

AQ: How about fish? What challenges are there to the production of other major species?

AB: In Indonesia, the most widely consumed fish are catfish, pangasius and tilapia. Awareness about fish consumption and demand in Indonesia is increasing due to its high protein content and cheaper price compared to other proteins like beef.

The challenge of fish culture relies on good quality disease-free fingerlings. In addition, most fish cultures are located in lakes where water quality could be uncertain. Therefore, to meet the demand of aquaculture with a good quality product, it’s necessary to have high-quality fingerlings, high-quality fish feed and ample space to operate. However, in Indonesia, finding the perfect location for fish farming can be difficult due to the limitation of free land.

Looking at this challenge, STP has started to apply biofloc technology for our customers. Through this technology, we are able to maintain water and culture quality more sustainably. In addition, our freshwater fish hatcheries apply a Marker Assisted Selection (MAS) to ensure our fish fingerlings are pathogen-free.

AQ: Japfa recently organized Japfa Feeds the Future Challenge. What do you think will be the next innovations that will boost aquaculture farming?

AB: We believe that digitalization will be very important in aquaculture, in particular Technology 4.0. For instance, we see a lot of farmers using automatic feeders. To support digitalization in aquaculture farming, we also provide an automatic feeder using IoT for Kampung Perikanan Digital (Digital Fishing Village), a collaboration program with e-Fishery, Telkomsel and West Java government in Cirebon, West Java.

In STP, to monitor farms, we use android-based systems such as IoT, digitalization and big data analytics through TKT Mobile – an android-based mobile app for tracking shrimp farm production that can be accessed by our Shrimp Farm Technician (SFT) and QC Sharp, Quality Control Shrimp Hatchery Accurate Rapid Program, a web-based mobile app that enables us to monitor the growth and development of shrimps in an efficient yet precise way to support sustainable farming. In the future, we are also moving towards the use of satellites for farm site monitoring.