The government has issued an import permit for state-owned salt
producer PT Garam to import 75,000 tons of raw salt material from
Australia. The salt will enter Indonesia through three ports on Aug. 10.
"In 2016, we allocated 226,000 tons of salt imports, so we still have
room. When the harvest returns to normal, we will stop importing," the
Trade Ministry's foreign trade director general, Oke Nurwan, said in
Jakarta on Friday.
He further said that the government would decide the price of table salt in the retailer market next week.
The ministry hopes that after the import is realized in August, the domestic supply of salt will gradually return to normal.
The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry’s director general for
territorial sea management, Brahmantya Satyamurti, said the amount of
domestic salt production was currently far from the normal production of
166,000 tons a month.
“From May to July, salt farmers only managed to produce 6,200 tons, which is far from normal,” he said.
The Trade Ministry has ensured that salt distribution in the market
will be tightly monitored by a food stability task force, which includes
personnel from the police, the Business Competition Supervisory
Commission (KPPU) and the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry.
Salt imports are regulated under the Law No. 7/2016 on the protection
and empowerment of fishermen, fishers and salt farmers. It stipulates
that import permits issued to PT Garam by the Trade Ministry requires a
recommendation letter from the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry.
Source - TheJakartaPost
