President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo argued in November that the ban would encourage investment in domestic seaweed processing, as part of a larger suite of export restrictions.

However, my research on seaweed value chains in Indonesia suggests that an export ban on Indonesian seaweed would adversely impact domestic seaweed production. Seaweed farming is Indonesia's largest marine aquacultural activity, representing US$1.89 billion of the total $2.05 billion Indonesian marine aquaculture production annually. Over the last twenty years, it has grown rapidly and now supports the livelihoods of around 62,000 farmers, as well as many more people in coastal communities who work as casual wage laborers in the industry.

An export ban is likely to lead to lower commodity prices, turning some of those farmers to other sources of income and reducing national production. It also would not ultimately support domestic processors to compete with large foreign companies operating in Indonesia to access seaweed supplies.

The threat to prices and production

Over the last decade, the Indonesian government has considered export bans to prevent the sale of unprocessed seaweed to the global market. So far, these policies have yet to be implemented nationally.