Indonesia to reach self sufficiency in salt supply

The government is optimistic the country would be self sufficient in salt supply in 2017, an official said here on Wednesday.

Agung Kuswandono, the Deputy II in Coordination of Natural Resources and Service at the office of the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs said self sufficiency in salt supply is expected to be reached in 2017.

Agung said the Marine and Fisheries Ministry has taken various steps to improve the quality of the farmers salt to meet the standards for household consumption and industries.

He said the country needs around 4.02 million tons of salt including 2.05 million tons of industrial salt and 1.97 million tons of consumption salt.

The domestic production is around 3.8 million tons a year including 3.1 million tons of farmers salt and 700,000 tons produced by the state -owned salt company PT Garam.

Based on data from the Indonesian Association of Salt Consuming Industries (AIPGI), in 2015 , the country needs 400,000 tons of salt to preserve fishes a year.

The process of fish salting generally does not use iodine although iodine is important for human health, Agung said.

Indonesia imports salt especially from Australia to cover the deficit in domestic supply