DPR asks the government to limit salt imports to realize self-sufficiency in 2027

JAKARTA - The Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI) encourages the government to tighten restrictions on salt imports while increasing the absorption of local farmers' production.

The demand arose after the import of industrial salt again increased in the early period of 2026, while the government targets that national salt self-sufficiency can be achieved in 2027.

Member of Commission IV of the Indonesian House of Representatives, PKB Faction, Daniel Johan, said that the salt self-sufficiency target for 2027 needed to be answered with concrete actions, especially after the import of industrial salt at the beginning of 2026 increased again.

"The target of salt self-sufficiency in 2027 from the government we appreciate. However, given the data on the import of industrial salt in January-May 2026 reached 936,000 tons or increased by 13.1 percent, then if the target of self-sufficiency in 2027, the data must be followed by real actions in the field," said Daniel.

Daniel assessed that the government needed to optimize the potential of national salt, including maintaining salt ponds so that they do not change function.

According to him, Indonesia has 33,216.06 hectares of salt pond land which can become an important capital for national production.

In addition to maintaining land and production, Daniel emphasized the importance of improving the quality of salt so that domestic production can be absorbed more widely by industry.

"Improving the quality of national salt is the main key, not just a matter of increasing production volumes. The government must encourage salt purification technology at the level of farmers, so that domestically produced salt can really meet industry standards at competitive prices," he said.

In line with this, Member of Commission VI of the Indonesian House of Representatives from the Democratic Party Faction, Herman Khaeron, said that the strengthening of the salt sector needed to be supported by infrastructure, technology, supply continuity, and institutional farmers.

According to him, the continuity of production which is influenced by the climate must also be balanced with technology that can be accessed by salt farmers. "The point is that the government must be on hand and ultimately limit imports," he said.

With the increase in imports of industrial salt in early 2026, the government is asked not to make imports an automatic response to the industry's additional demand because each additional import needs to be tested based on data on needs, stocks, local production capacity, salt quality, and the industry's absorption capacity of domestic products.

In addition, the import restriction policy is considered to be accompanied by obligations for importers and industries to absorb domestic production salt because without market certainty for farmers, efforts to increase the production and quality of national salt are considered difficult to run sustainably.

In the midst of the salt self-sufficiency target for 2027, the DPR asked the government to ensure that import policies, quality improvement, production strengthening, and protection of farmers run in one direction, and imports only need to be selectively opened for needs that really cannot be met from within the country.

According to Herman, Indonesia has great potential to become a salt-producing country, and what is needed is political will and the seriousness of the government to make salt a self-sufficiency priority.

"If you look at the potential, of course, it is optimistic that Indonesia can become a salt producing country. It's just a matter of political will and the seriousness of the government in placing salt as a priority scale for self-sufficiency," said Herman.