The Regional Fisheries Livelihood Programme for South and Southeast Asia (RFLP) has improved the quality and availability of fresh fish on Indonesia’s Rote island by providing motorcycle cool boxes for mobile fish traders.
Just over a year ago, in collaboration with Rote Ndao District’s Marine and Fisheries Agency (Dinas Kelautan dan Perikanan - DKP), 18 sets of motorcycle cool boxes were handed over, each of which comprises two boxes carried on either side of a motorcycle.
One cool box set can carry a maximum of around 20-25 kilos of fish depending on the size and type. Recipients were also provided training on good handling practices while stickers promoting these as well as the benefit of consuming fish were attached to the cool boxes.
“We seek to inform consumers that buying fish from the traders who follow good post harvest practices is recommended. Not only are their fish fresher but they are also more hygienic compared to those not using cool boxes,” said RFLP’s National Consultant for Post-harvest and Marketing, Akhmad Rikhun.
Rote Ndao is Indonesia’s southernmost island and covers over 1,200 square kilometers. Mobile fish traders usually take fish from the western and eastern parts of the island and distribute it on their motorcycles to distant villages tens of kilometers away. The traders did not previously follow good post-harvest practices often using no ice as well as unclean open containers.
“I’m not exaggerating, but I can say that this RFLP standard cool box really helps to keep my fish stay fresh for about eight hours, which is about five hours longer than usual. Consumers also realise my fish are in better condition than before when they see I have a new cool box,” said Pacek Ane a mobile fish trader from Pantai Baru Sub District, Rote Ndao.
Traders receiving the cool boxes also required to sign an agreement pledging to use the boxes correctly.
“This is a good initiative to educate fish traders. The agreements state that the cool boxes are the property of RFLP and can be taken back if beneficiaries do not use them properly. For example if they rent the cool box to another fish trader or if they don’t maintain the hygiene of the cool box or fish,” said Selfiana Lenggu Balu, Rote Ndao DKP’s Head of Fish Processing and Business Development Division.
Success
The success of the cool boxes comes following a lengthy process of capacity building not only of the former school drop outs who make them but also for local NGOs involved in promoting this initiative and training the young people.
Roland Tuella, the founder of local NGO Suara Flobamora, worked with RFLP to train and guide local youth to produce the fibre glass cool boxes.
Mr Tuella was concerned by a common social problem of young people dropping out of school and having nothing to do.
“I was concerned about the young people in Kupang, especially in Tenau district (the port area). I heard that they had been doing bad things like stealing rice in the harbor. Moreover, the people around these youngsters didn’t think about getting them back to school or how they could be successful. With this in mind, I established an NGO called Suara Masyarakat Flobamora (Voice of Flobamora) as a development channel for youth”, said Mr Tuella.
Mr Tuella himself took part in training provided by RFLP in collaboration with the ILO East project to learn how better to identify business and employment opportunities and to develop vocational training to provide employment and business opportunities for youth.
“The training was something new for me and was very good indeed. I learned how to build a sustainable project and how to continuously monitor and evaluate it”, he said.
Following the training, the participants studied the needs of the market as well as those of young people in the area. Based on the findings, a series of entrepreneurship and vocational training activities took place for unemployed young people on various subject areas based on Indonesian National Work Competency Standards.
One of the skills taught was fibre glass production and airbrush work in recognition of the considerable demand existing in NTT for such products and services. Mr Tuella himself trained eight young people with cool boxes designed and developed by RFLP in order to improve the quality of fish distributed within the districts being one of the products the trainees worked on. The cool boxes allow mobile traders using motorcycles to keep their products fresher, to use less ice and result in higher incomes.
“RFLP successfully pioneered the development of these cool boxes and it is great that our idea has been adopted and will hopefully be widely spread to other areas,” said RFLP’s Akhmad Rikhun.
