Indonesia is known as islands country with the biggest composition of islands in the world with sea area of about 5.8 million kilometers square (75 percent of total area of Indonesia) of which 0,3 million km2 is known as sea territory; 2.8 million km2 as Indonesian archipelago; and 2.7 million km2 sea waters as Indonesia Economic Exclusive Zone. The land area is only 1.9 million km2 (25 percent of total area of Indonesia)

Meanwhile, in the land there are waters (rivers, swamps, reservoirs) covering an area of 54 million hectare or 0.54 km2 (27 percent of total of total Indonesia land area). Therefore, Indonesia is actually a “water world”, a term taken from the popular movie in the mid 90's starred by Kevin Costner.

The Indonesian sea areas suitable for seaweed growing are estimated to be 1.1 million hectare. With average yearly productivity of 16 MT of dried seaweed per hectare, 17.7 million MT of dried seaweed can be produced yearly. (High potential carrageenan supply)

Translated from: (KOMPAS - Monday, 22 November 2004)
By: Rokhmin Dahuri (Minister of Sea Territories and Fisheries)