Competitiveness of and Barriers to Indonesia’s Exports of Ornamental Fish

Abstract

Indonesia has been striving to become the world’s largest ornamental fish exporter for the past two decades, but success has been limited. This study analyzes Indonesia’s export competitiveness and identifies the barriers encountered. A trade analysis using the UN-Comtrade database for 2012–2021 was conducted using the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), Constant Market Shares (CMS), and Competitiveness Matrix formulas to evaluate the competitiveness. Qualitative data from interviews with forty-three industry stakeholders were analyzed using NVivo to evaluate export barriers. The findings revealed that Indonesia had not been optimally exporting to some of the world’s largest markets and faced various barriers, such as product quality and continuity, regulations, marketing, shipment, and other internal and external barriers. The government’s role in overcoming those barriers is crucial while maintaining environmental sustainability. We also propose a matrix model for export barrier levels consisting of export readiness, export market accessibility, export operational challenges, and dynamic export environment.