Indonesia is projected to produce only 55,000 tons of salt for household consumption this August. Although the amount is higher than previous months’ output, it is far lower than that of other salt producers.

“Our average yearly salt production in the last two years was 2.7 million tons, so [the August output] is still far than the ‘normal’ production,” the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry’s secretary-general Rifki Effendi Hardijanto said in Jakarta on Monday.

Previously, the ministry’s director-general for territorial sea management Brahmantya Satyamurti said that because of the meager production, the ministry issued a permit allowing state-owned salt producer PT Garam to import 75,000 tons of raw salt materials from Australia.

From May to July this year, local farmers could only produce 6,200 tons of salt, Brahmantya said.

Rifki expressed the hope that local farmers could produce more salt during the coming dry season. He said the imported salt would be released gradually and the market would still be supplied mainly with salt produced by local farmers.

To tackle the salt scarcity, the government plans to develop salt fields on 5,000 hectares of idle land in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).

Brahmantya said that his ministry would check the feasibility of several locations, including the provincial capital of Kupang Bay and several regencies, namely Nagekeo, Rote Ndao and Sabu Raijua, for salt producing centers. (dis/bbn)