Seafood
Live reef fish
Live reef fish, mainly grouper and coral trout, are shipped to Hong Kong and mainland Chinese restaurant markets. The product only has value alive, so holding, conditioning and transport dominate everything, and the trade carries real sourcing questions a buyer has to answer.
How it leaves the country.
- Live in tanks by sea
- Purpose-built live fish carriers with circulating seawater. The traditional route into the southern Chinese market.
- Live by air
- Bagged with oxygen in insulated boxes. Faster, far more expensive, and every hour of layover matters.
- Cultured
- Hatchery-raised and grown out in cages. Predictable supply and increasingly the majority of legitimate trade.
- Wild caught
- Where the sourcing questions concentrate, and where a buyer needs to know how the fish were caught.
How it is graded.
The specification is condition rather than appearance. A fish that arrives dead is worth a fraction of one that arrives swimming, so everything is about survival.
- Species and size
- Restaurant demand is size specific, frequently a plate-sized fish. Outside the range the price falls sharply.
- Condition and vigour
- Fish are conditioned and starved before transport so they foul the water less. Handling in the days before shipment decides arrival condition.
- Capture method
- Cyanide fishing damages reefs and leaves fish that die later. Establishing how the fish were caught is a sourcing obligation rather than an optional check.
- Protected species
- Some groupers and wrasse are listed under international trade rules. Species identification is a permit question rather than a menu one.
- Holding history
- How long in which tank at what density. It predicts mortality in transit better than anything visible.
- Disease and treatment
- What was used in the holding system and whether residues are permitted where you sell.
How it is packed.
- Bagged with oxygen
- For air freight, in insulated boxes with temperature control. The packing is a craft and it decides the arrival rate.
- Live carrier vessels
- For sea transport, with circulating seawater and constant monitoring. A pump failure is a total loss.
- Routing
- Every hour and every transfer costs survival. The cheaper flight with a long layover is not cheaper.
- Receiving capacity
- Prepared water and somebody waiting. Fish sitting in a warehouse are lost.
Where it grows.
Eastern Indonesia
Maluku
Reef fisheries and grow-out operations across the eastern archipelago, remote and logistically demanding.
West Nusa Tenggara
Lesser Sunda
Cage culture and holding facilities with better connections than the far east of the country.
South Sulawesi
Sulawesi
Hatchery and grow-out capability, and a route through Makassar.
Bali
Bali
Holding and consolidation with direct international flights for air shipments.
Documentation, where applicable.
- Health certificate
- Live aquatic animals, so both food safety and animal health requirements can apply at destination.1
- CITES permit
- Where the species is listed. Identification has to be right, because the permit is species specific.2
- Catch certificate
- Where the destination requires evidence of legal catch for wild-caught fish.3
- Certificate of origin
- Which form applies depends on the destination and the preference scheme in force with Indonesia.
Questions buyers ask.
How do I know the fish were not caught with cyanide?
By buying cultured fish where possible, and by knowing the specific fishery and holding facility where you cannot. It is a supply chain question rather than something visible in a tank, and it is one a buyer has a real obligation to ask.
What mortality is normal?
It depends on species, routing and holding, and any universal figure is unreliable. Agree in advance how loss is counted, evidenced and settled, because the first bad arrival will otherwise end the relationship.
Can live fish be shipped to Europe or the US?
The demand is overwhelmingly in Asian markets, and the routing and the import requirements make longer journeys difficult. Establish your own market's position on live aquatic animals before planning anything.
What does your service cost?
Five per cent of the order value, paid by you and never by the factory. A factory audit starts at $250 depending on location. We work with orders from $10,000 per shipment.
Tell us what you need.
Give us the specification and the destination port. We come back with producer options and an indicative price. Our fee is 5 % of the order value, paid by you and never by the factory.
Sources
- 1TRACES modules and features. European Commission, DG Health and Food Safety. Checked 3 August 2026.
- 2Species+, the CITES listings database. UNEP-WCMC and the CITES Secretariat. Checked 5 August 2026.
- 3Council Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008 on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. EUR-Lex. Checked 3 August 2026.