TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for the Marine Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said in 2020 Indonesia is no longer importing salt. Luhut said the government will continue to seek ways to increase national salt production.
One way to do so is by land extensification in a number of salt production areas, including East Nusa Tenggara, which has the potential to become one of the nation's salt centers.
"PT Garam has built 4,000 hectares in Kupang Bay, East Nusa Tenggara, so we can boost salt production," he said during a media briefing in Jakarta on Tuesday, October 17.
Read: Indonesia Experiencing Salt Crisis
Luhut said Indonesia has a very large area of salt lands, reaching more than 30,000 hectares including land owned by the people. Unfortunately, PT Garam, which also manages thousands of salt fields, does not maximize the land by working with private companies.
Luhut said the government will prepare the necessary infrastructure to support the increase of salt production. "The law calls the government to set up the infrastructure so that farmers can get old water from the government, which we will do next year," he said.
According to Luhut, if the program is successfully executed, then the supply of edible salt will not be a problem anymore. "What we are after is industrial salt. We will start on 2019 and hope for it to be completed by 2020, which is hopefully when Indonesia won't need to import anymore," he said.
ANTARA
