Faisal Maliki Baskoro – As an archipelagic nation with about 55,000 kilometers of coastline, the country should not be importing salt, industry officials said on Sunday.
Yugi Prayanto, deputy of fisheries and maritime affairs at the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), said imported salt had hurt local producers, and without tight monitoring the country could soon become a net importer in the face of cheaper imports.
"As long as our policy on imports is unclear, obtaining bank loans remains difficult and coordination among ministries still exists, we remain pessimistic that Indonesia can achieve self-sufficiency by 2013," he said.
The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries has set a target of reaching self-sufficiency in less than three years, with imports being reduced to 1.28 million tons next year and the country producing a surplus of 77,000 tons in 2013 and 1.5 million tons in 2014.
"Kadin calls on the government to put an end to excessive salt imports, maximize production centers on coastlines and protect local salt farmers," Yugi said. "If we can't protect our farmers, we will continue to be dependent on imports."
According to the Ministry of Industry, there are around 60,000 hectares of salt farms. But Yugi said those areas were scattered, causing production inefficiency.
On top of that, he said producers were hampered by unpredictable weather, low prices, a lack of viable land and poor access to new markets.
Prolonged rains last year caused salt production to drop drastically to 23,000 tons, far below the average output of one million tons. Meanwhile, 1.5 million tons was imported last year.
According to Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry data, consumption for this year will reach 3.4 million tons, 1.6 million of which will be for household consumption and the remainder going to industry.
Yugi said total production this year was expected to be much better at 1.4 million tons. As of July, imports had reached 300,000 tons, while the Ministry of Trade had requested an import quota allowing an additional 900,000 tons.
After protests from the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, however, the government said there would be no more imports until the harvesting season began in October.
Meanwhile, in order to boost production, the government will provide the country's main salt producer, state-owned Garam, with a Rp 440 billion ($51.5 million) injection of capital.
State Enterprises Minister Mustafa Abubakar said during the weekend that the ailing company, which contributes about 30 percent of national production, needed the additional funds.
"This capital injection is designed to protect farmers so that we don't have to import salt," he said. "The government has said no to imported salt, at least until the salt harvest in October. That's why we need to boost production to meet demand."