The province in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), with its vast bodies of water, has the potential to become the center of national salt production that can help tackle the salt production deficit in Indonesia, Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan has said.

“The potential of salt production in NTT will help to fulfill domestic demand. The governor will look into this and make NTT a salt-producing province,” Luhut said during his visit to the salt field, which belongs to state-owned salt producer PT Garam Indonesia in Bipolo village in Sulamu, Kupang regency on Monday.

Twelve regencies in the province, including Malaka, Alor, East Flores, Lembata and Nagekeo, have the potential to develop 26,000 hectares of salt fields that can produce up to 2.7 million tons of salt per year, Luhut said.

He went on to say that this volume of production, in addition to production in other salt producer areas such as Madura in East Java, Makassar (South Sulawesi) and West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), would be able to fulfill domestic demand.

In Bipolo, for instance, the government hopes to develop salt fields on 5,000 hectares of land, Luhut said.

Luhut added that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has called for the development of more salt fields across Indonesia as part of the country’s bid to achieve salt self-sufficiency by 2020.

“We have talked with the regent and governor to provide an integrated solution […] the matter of land [acquisition] will be immediately resolved,” Luhut said. 

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