Seafood
Indonesian sea cucumber
Sea cucumber, teripang locally and bêche-de-mer in the trade, is collected across the Indonesian archipelago and dried for export. Three Holothuria species are listed in CITES Appendix II and the rest are not, which makes species identification the first question rather than a technical detail.
How it leaves the country.
- Dried
- The export form, boiled and dried in stages. Grading follows species, size and how well it was processed.
- Frozen and salted
- Intermediate forms moving between collectors and processors, and occasionally exported.
- By species
- Prices vary by orders of magnitude between species. Anyone buying without knowing which one is buying blind.
How it is graded.
There is no published grade table. The commercially important distinction is legal rather than technical, and it is decided by which species is in the bag.
- The listed species
- Holothuria fuscogilva, H. whitmaei and H. nobilis were listed in CITES Appendix II, with the listing taking effect in 2020.1
- What that requires
- An export permit, and a scientific authority finding that the export is not detrimental to the species. Indonesia has run quotas for listed species since 2021.1
- Everything else
- Species outside the listing trade under ordinary rules. Establishing which you have is the point of the exercise.
How it is packed.
- Dried goods
- Sacks or cartons, kept dry. Moisture pickup ruins dried sea cucumber and it cannot be recovered.
- Documentation travels
- Where a CITES permit applies it accompanies the consignment and is checked on both sides. A shipment without one is seized rather than delayed.
Where it grows.
Sulawesi
Sulawesi
Long-established collection and processing, feeding the export trade.
Maluku
Maluku
Extensive reef collection across a very large area.
East Nusa Tenggara
Nusa Tenggara
Collection across many small islands, with the traceability difficulty that implies.
Documentation, where applicable.
- Species identification
- Established before anything else, because it decides whether a CITES permit is required at all.1
- CITES export permit
- For listed species, issued against available quota. Without it there is no lawful export.1
- Export health certificate
- Issued by the Indonesian competent authority against the destination's public health requirements.2
- Certificate of origin
- Which form applies depends on the destination and on the preference scheme in force.
Questions buyers ask.
How do I know which species I am being offered?
Ask for the scientific name and for photographs before processing, and be sceptical of a seller who answers with a trade name only. Dried sea cucumber is hard to identify by eye, which is precisely why the paperwork exists.
Can you source the listed species?
Only through a trader holding quota and with a permit, and often the honest answer for a given season is no. That is a better answer than a consignment seized at your border.
Why do prices vary so much?
Because species, size and processing quality all move independently and the top species trade at a large multiple of the common ones. A quotation without a species name is not a quotation.
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.
Worth reading.
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
- 1CoP18 Proposal 45, listing of Holothuria sea cucumbers in Appendix II. CITES. Checked 3 August 2026.
- 2Entering the European market for fresh tuna. CBI, Netherlands Enterprise Agency. Checked 3 August 2026.