Jakarta, Aug 30 (Antara) - Salt is one of the commodities still imported by Indonesia, though the country has the potential to produce and meet its own annual domestic demand of some four million tons.
Indonesia was able to become self-sufficient in salt production for a period of four years from 2012 to 2015, but due to weather anomalies, it has been importing the commodity again.
Last year, for instance, domestic salt production of just 144 thousand tons accounted for a meager four percent of its target of three million tons.
Data from the state-owned salt company PT Garam revealed that the national demand for salt has reached 4.04 million tons per annum comprising 1.3 million tons of consumer salt and 2.74 million tons of industrial salt.
Of the salt imported for the industry, 2.14 million tons was for the chemical industry, one thousand tons for pharmacies, and 40 thousand tons for oil mining.
Hence, the government is determined to regain its earlier position of being self-sufficient in salt production.
"They (stakeholders) proposed a target to be achieved in 2020, but I urged that it should be accelerated to achieve the target in 2019," Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan noted after a coordination meeting at his office in Jakarta on Monday (Aug 28).
Indonesia has 40 thousand hectares of potential land for salt production. However, several plots of land for salt production are facing problems owing to their ownership status.
"We want to settle the problem soon, as it seems to be solvable. If possible, we will settle it this year, so that self-sufficiency in domestic salt production can be achieved in 2019," Pandjaitan noted.
The government is opposed to the idea of the country continuing to import salt to meet its demand for the commodity. Hence, self-sufficiency should be achieved both for industrial and consumer salt.
"We want that the salt industry's demand for one million tons should no longer be met through imports. Admittedly, the costs will be higher, but it should not necessarily pose a problem. We are a big country and should be able to do it, so that imports can be stopped," he added.
The government has continued to make several efforts to cope with the scarcity of salt supply in various parts of the country and reduce its dependence on imports. It had set a salt production target of 3 million tons for 2016, but so far, the production was far short of expectation," Ali Mahdi, the marketing director of the state-owned salt producer PT Garam, said.
Ali Mahdi blamed weather phenomenon El Nina for the failure to reach the target, noting that it had caused heavy downpour even during the dry season in the country.
Heavy rainfall hampered the process of production in the salt producing areas, such as Madura, the country's main producer of industrial and consumption salt.
Many parts of the country have been hit by flooding and landslides triggered by heavy downpour this year, including in the middle of the year when it is generally dry.
Therefore, in order to increase production, technology is needed. The Agency for Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) already has the technology to increase and improve salt productivity and quality. The government hopes that the technology could be applied immediately.
The government and PT Garam would prepare the program to develop and implement program to improve salt productivity. There are 22 thousand hectares of salt land that could be used to modernize salt farming industry.
According to Pandjaitan, the eastern Indonesia would be given the priority in the program as the quality of sea waters is superior compared with the sea water in Java. He said the sea water of Java have been badly contaminated.
He said the 22 thousand hectares of lands are found in various areas all over the country mainly in East Nusa Tenggara, which alone has around 15 thousand hectares; Java, Madura and Jeneponto of South Sulawesi.
Therefore, PT Garam plans to expand its business by harvesting 10 thousand hectares of new salt fields in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) in order to achieve self-sufficiency in the commodity by 2019.
President Director of PT Garam Dolly Parlagutan noted in a written statement received by Antara on Monday (Aug 28) that new semi-mechanical salt fields in NTT are estimated to be harvested until 2020.
According to Parlagutan, the quality of salt produced in NTT is equivalent to that of imported salt, with a minimum sodium chloride content of 97 percent. Hence, it is expected to reduce salt imports by contributing about one million tons to the nation's salt production.
Currently, PT Garam has only produced 350 thousand to 400 thousand tons of salt from 5,340 hectares of fields in Madura Island using a community-base scheme.
"As the only state-owned enterprise dealing with salt production, we have a very important task of realizing President Jokowi's (Joko Widodo's) Nawa Cita program by achieving the target of national salt sovereignty," Parlagutan emphasized.***3***
(A014/INE)EDITED BY INE(T.A014/A/BESSR/F. Assegaf) 30-08-2017 15:53 |
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