Agriculture & food

Prawn crackers

Prawn crackers, krupuk udang, are exported as hard unfried discs and expand when the buyer fries them. Everything commercial about the product is decided by how much it expands and how consistently, and a cracker that has picked up moisture does not expand at all.

How it leaves the country.

Raw discs, bulk: The export trade. Hard, dense and shelf stable, packed by weight. The buyer or their kitchen does the frying.
Raw, retail packed: Consumer packs with frying instructions. The same product with artwork and destination labelling attached.
Fried and packed: Ready to eat, extremely bulky and fragile. Freight per kilo is high and shelf life is shorter because of the oil.
Other krupuk types: Fish, melinjo, garlic and vegetable versions. Different raw material and the same physics.

How it is graded.

There is one question: does it puff. Everything in the specification exists to answer it, and the answer is set before the product ever reaches your kitchen.

Expansion: How much the disc grows when fried. It is the product, it is measurable, and it should be checked on a sample from the shipped lot rather than trusted.
Moisture: The cause of almost every failure. A cracker that has absorbed moisture stays hard in the oil. Drying at the factory and the barrier of the pack decide this together.
Prawn or fish content: Drives flavour and price, and it varies enormously between offers. Specify it as a declared figure, because the difference between a good and a cheap krupuk is mostly here.
Starch base: Tapioca is the usual base. The starch quality and the ratio affect both expansion and mouthfeel.
Breakage: Raw discs are brittle and shipping breaks them. Fragments still fry and they look wrong in a retail pack, so the tolerance belongs in the contract.
Colour and uniformity: Even and pale. Speckling and colour variation between discs points at inconsistent drying.

How it is packed.

Barrier packaging: The whole defence against moisture. A cheap film in a humid climate means the product fails before it reaches the fryer.
Cartons and volume: Raw discs are dense and fried ones are almost all air. Which form you buy changes the container arithmetic completely.
Desiccant: Used in some packs. Ask whether it is present and whether it is declared, since some markets have rules about sachets in food packaging.
Ambient, dry: Shelf stable and hygroscopic. Storage at destination matters as much as storage at origin.

Where it grows.

Sidoarjo and East Java
Java
The traditional krupuk area, alongside the pond belt that supplies the prawn.
Cirebon and West Java
Java
A long-established production centre with export capability.
Palembang
Sumatra
Known for fish-based krupuk and kemplang, using river and marine fish.

Documentation, where applicable.

HACCP certificate: A processed food containing seafood, so allergen control and drying are the points that matter in the audit.¹
Certificate of analysis: Moisture and microbiological results on the shipped lot, plus prawn content where it is declared.
Health certificate: Where the destination treats a seafood-containing product as requiring one, which many do.²
Halal certificate: Standard for Indonesian food exports and required for several destination markets.³

What a shipment needs depends on the product, the producer and the market it is going to. We map the documents against your destination before anyone quotes a price.

Questions buyers ask.

Why did my crackers not puff?

Almost always moisture, picked up in storage or transit through inadequate packaging. It is not usually a production fault, and it is why the film specification is worth as much attention as the recipe.

How much prawn is actually in them?

It varies enormously and it is the main driver of price. Ask for a declared percentage and put it in the specification, because two offers that look identical can differ by a factor here.

Should I import raw or fried?

Raw for almost every case. Fried product is mostly air, so you pay freight on volume, and the oil starts ageing the day it is fried.

Is it an allergen concern?

Yes. Crustacean and fish are declarable allergens in most markets, and shared lines between prawn and non-prawn products are a genuine control question at the factory.

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

1General principles of food hygiene and the HACCP system. Codex Alimentarius, FAO and WHO. Checked 3 August 2026.
2TRACES modules and features. European Commission, DG Health and Food Safety. Checked 3 August 2026.
3Badan Penyelenggara Jaminan Produk Halal. BPJPH, Ministry of Religious Affairs, Republic of Indonesia. Checked 3 August 2026.