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View all search resultsRiau Islands seek answers as Hong Kong abruptly halts live fish imports
According to local authorities, since March 2025, Hong Kong vessels have stopped purchasing live fish from fishermen in Natuna and Anambas regencies, Indonesia’s outermost islands, without providing any official explanation.
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Fishy situation: Workers sort fish on Oct. 9, 2024, as they are unloaded from a boat at Muara Baru fishing port in North Jakarta. (Reuters/Willy Kurniawan)
T
he Riau Islands administration is scrambling to resume fish exports to Hong Kong after an abrupt and unexplained suspension of imports that began several months ago.
According to local authorities, since March 2025, Hong Kong vessels have stopped purchasing live fish from fishermen in Natuna and Anambas regencies, Indonesia’s outermost islands, without providing any official explanation.
Riau Islands Deputy Governor Nyanyang Haris Pratamura said the regional government remains in the dark about the sudden halt in exports, despite having reached out to the Foreign Ministry earlier this month for clarification.
"We have asked Foreign Ministry officials, what happened? Why can’t our fish be exported to Hong Kong? But we have not received any clear explanation so far," he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Read also: Jakarta's fishers battle rising pollution as government turns blind eye
He added that the local government hopes the issue is purely commercial in nature and not politically motivated.
"We hope this is strictly a business matter, and not related to rising tensions in the South China Sea," he said.
