Coordinating Minister Zulhas Ensures That Indonesia Will No Longer Import All Types Of Salt In 2027

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs Zulkifli Hasan ensured that Indonesia would no longer import all types of salt for domestic needs starting in 2027.

Zulhas, as he is familiarly called, said that currently Indonesia no longer imports consumption salt, but industrial salt still depends on foreign supplies.

"Including salt. We are salt now not imported for consumption, but the industry is still. At the end of 2027 all salt models, God willing, we already have, we don't need to import anymore," he said at the Town Hall Meeting for One Year at the Coordinating Ministry for Food, Jakarta, Tuesday, October 21.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Sakti Wahyu Trenggono, also regretted that Indonesia is a maritime country but still imports salt.

"Our 80-year-old marine country is also still imported (garm). So consumption salt, salt for the food and various industries, salt for pharmaceutical purposes, salt for CAP (Chlor Alkali Plant) are all still imported," he said.

Trenggono admitted that he would follow President Prabowo Subianto's direction to achieve the salt self-sufficiency target in 2027.

"Under the coordination of the Coordinating Minister (Pangan Zulkifli Hasan), the President has also ordered that by the end of 2027 the matter of self-sufficiency in salt can be carried out by all types, so we are no longer imported," he said.

Previously, it was reported that the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) had several strategies to achieve the salt self-sufficiency target in 2027.

The Director General of Marine Management and Marine Space of the KKP Koswara said that the KKP had prepared a number of strategies to achieve this target.

Koswara said the first strategy was the construction of a salt industrial center area in Rote, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), covering an area of 13,000 hectares (ha). He said that in the calculation, assuming 200 tons of salt can be produced per hectare, domestic salt production can increase to 2.6 million tons.

In addition, the KKP also made a modeling, in which a 2,000 ha industrial zone was built, while the rest was developed by the private sector.

"Then through the intensification of salt existing land, ponds, it was also driven by an increase in salt of around 30 percent," he said.

He said the target of completely stopping salt imports in 2027 applies to all types. Currently, said Koswara, Indonesia has self-sufficiency in consumption salt considering the qualified supply from within the country.

"What is still imported is industrial salt. It is used for the CAP (Chlor Alkali Plant) industry, for the food and pharmaceutical industries. Actually, those imported are for domestic consumption have actually been fulfilled with the existing ones," said Koswara.