57 The minimum size measure was also based on practices in other international fisheries. However,
this international information had to be complemented with information about the BSC, because the limit should be based on the size at maturity of the resource. Collecting data in Jakarta Bay was a
guided choice, since the crab business was very active there. In the end, the size limit was set at eight centimetres, because it was in the interest of the BSC FIP participants not to boycott the fishing
practices in Jakarta Bay. On top of that, there was another economic incentive to choose this limit, because processing crabs smaller than eight centimetres would not be profitable. Setting the size
limit at eight centimetres turned out being in line with maintaining the crab business on the short term without suffering a financial loss. The local trade relations forced the BSC FIP participants to
choose this size. Improvement would take place once the minimum size limit was increased.
6.3.2 The information flow through the value chain
The aim of the research was to analyse the improvement of the BSC fishery that is imposed by global actors aiming for change on the local level. Therefore, it was essential to study the flows of
commodity and information between these levels of actors, taking into account the vertical linkages and horizontal elements after Bolwig et al., 2010. The vertical linkages that represent the
commodity flow from fishers until processors, importers, retailers and consumers as shown in Figure 4.1 provided a starting point for understanding the general relations between the actors of the
different levels. Moreover, analysing “the influence of horizontal actors and processes at each transaction point” indeed, as stated by Bush and Oosterveer 2007:p.389, turned out to be
“essential to understanding how goods move through different hands and how information flows back down to producers”. Describing the FIP in the context of value chains allowed illustrating that
local trade networks were embedded in global trade networks of actors and imposed standards and demands.
The way actors are embedded in networks of production and trade turned out to play a significant role, both on the transaction points in the value chain and between actors on the same level. This
could be revealed by the linkage of the concept of value chain to the information environment. Information about the BSC FIP measures had to be communicated from the global trade network via
the value chain down to the local trade network. The flow of information about the prohibition to catch berried females stagnated at the transaction point from the mini-plants to the collectors. Both
horizontal and vertical elements of the value chain played a role here. The mini-plant representative feared his customers would switch to other mini-plants, which is competition. Fishers were
economically rewarded for catching berried females and collectors were neither rewarded nor penalized for purchasing berried females. The mini-plant owner was not incentivised to communicate
the measure to the collectors and fishers, because this would result in protests of his customers. In the case of the minimum size limit, the minimum size was communicated down to the local level of
the fishers. Apparently an incentive existed that did not exist for the prohibition to take berried females.
6.3.3 Trade relations and perceptions on improvement
