The Local Government's Supply Chain Strategy to Empower the Traditional Fishermen in Southern Coast of Java']Java Island

This study aims to investigate how to determine the supply chain system strategy of the price efficiency for traditional fishermen in the southern coast of Java Island, and to find out how to determine the market selling price of the fish to improve the competitiveness of traditional fishermen. This study employed qualitative method with a critical paradigm based on Karl Marx thought to answer the problem of economic competitiveness of traditional fishermen. This study's respondents are traditional fishermen and Head of Fishery Department in Pangandaran, Pandeglang, Cilacap and Gunung Kidul. The results show that the role of fish auction places that has been organized by the Fishery Department of district government can reduce the supply chain-gap from fishermen to fish processing companies and household consumers. Moreover, the supervisor of fishery department acknowledged that the managers of fish auction place located in every district on the south coast of Java Island is still hampered by bakulan/the middlemen. Bakulan in each fish auction place determines the market price of fishes and provides working capital to the fishermen when they start working to find fishes in the sea. Furthermore, the results also show that the fishermen - fish auction's location - fish processing industries/consumer is the To en- hance the fisherman's economic competitiveness, the Department of Fishery must oversee the operating activity of fish auction and establish a fair price index of every type of fish caught by fishermen in every district.