Jakarta, Jan 13 (Antara) - Indonesia has not been able to meet its need for salt although it has a vast stretch of coastal areas conducive to salt production.
To meet its needs for both consumer salt and industrial salt, the country is forced to import the commodity. However, salt farmers complain about the imports because domestic production cannot compete against imported commodity, and is negatively impacted.
Data with the state-owned salt company, PT Garam, showed that the national need for salt has reached 4.04 million tons per annum. It consisted of 1.3 million tons of consumer salt and 2.74 million tons of industrial salt.
Of the salt imported for industry, 2.14 million tons was for chemical industry (ACP), 1,000 tons for pharmacies and 40,000 tons for oil mining.
Last year, domestic salt production of just 144,009 tons accounted for a meagre four percent of its 3 million tons target.
In order to boost domestic production, Indonesia needs to use advanced technology. Maritime and fisheries observer Abdul Halim said the Agency for Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) and the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) need to be involved in efforts to increase salt production.
"The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry (KKP) must cooperate with the PBBT and BMKG in boosting salt production so that the national target is achieved," Abdul Halim, who is also the executive director of the Center of Maritime Studies for Humanities, said in Jakarta on Thursday (Jan 12).
Both the agencies need to be intensively involved since the government has to consider the weather and geographical factors in opting for a technology.
The BMKG needs to be involved because experts believe that the long wet dry season seen last year was one of the causes for low production. This was due to the weather anomalies caused by the La Nina phenomenon.
According to the Director General of Maritime Space Management of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry (KKP), Brahmantya Satyamurti Poerwadi, the average rainfall last year was about 150 millimeters per month. In some regions, it reached 300 millimeters per month.
After all, sunlight and hot climate are very decisive in salt production in various production centers in the country. Salt self-sufficiency cannot be achieved by the KKP alone. Other stakeholders also need to contribute.
"We really failed to produce adequate amount of salt because of the adverse climate conditions. We coordinated with the industries and have to work hard to be self-sufficient. For this, intensive cultivation of salt land needs to be undertaken," the director general said.
Moreover, the KKP has the Empowerment of Salt Farmers (Pugar) Program since long now. It was meant to increase production of consumer salt.
The KKP will also launch a land-house integrated innovation program in an effort to increase salt production. This will include cultivation of salt in greenhouses.
"We will integrate a 15 hectare of land," Director General Brahmantya Satyamurti Poerwadi said at an event, called 'Reflection 2016 and Outlook 2017', organized by Maritime Development on Tuesday.
In the greenhouse program, the hot weather needed to produce salt could be maximized. A team of the KPP is calculating the cost for construction of a greenhouse project. "The salt development team of the KKP is calculating whether the 15 hectares of land would all be used for greenhouse and how much would it cost," he added.
Poerwadi noted that his office will also take into account people's expectations with regard to the greenhouse salt production project.
Since 2015, the KKP has also introduced geo-membrane technology in the Pugar program in its efforts to increase production.
The KKP will also build six warehouses this year to store the salt produced in various regions, adding to the six warehouses that were built in 2016.
"The warehouses will be located in Brebes, Demak, Rembang, Sampang, Tuban and Kupang," Poerwadi informed.
In 2016, the government had built six warehouses in Cirebon, Indramayu, Pati, Pamekasan, Bima, and Pangkep. These were constructed as per the Indonesian National Standard and took three to six months to build.
It is clear that self-sufficiency in salt production cannot be achieved instantly, and the commodity will have to be imported, particularly salt for industry.
In order to prevent the imported industrial salt to be diverted to the consumer's market, the KKP is coordinating with a task force to supervise the flow of imported salt.
"At least seven parties will have to coordinate in connection with the salt import task force," Poerwadi said.
The seven parties are the KKP, the office of the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs, the Trade Ministry, the Industry Ministry, the Finance Ministry, the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) and the Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) of the National Police Headquarters.
The director general pointed out that at a meeting of the different agencies on December 27, 2016, it was estimated that some 226,124 tons of consumer salt will be imported in 2017.
"The job of the coordination task force is to manage data. So, the BPS will also be involved," he mentioned, adding that salt leakage will be plugged.
Only the state-owned salt company PT Garam will be allowed to import consumer salt.
(A014/INE/B003)EDITED BY INE(T.A014/A/BESSR/Bustanuddin) 14-01-2017 00:02:2 |
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