With low reserves, Indonesia wants to import salt

Indonesia expects to import 1.4 million tons of salt. Source: Internet

According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Indonesia, the Indonesian government has announced officially on whether to allow the import of salt in 2017 because the amount of salt in the water is not sufficient to meet consumer demand and in produce.

The main reason is due to heavy rainfall in recent years severely impacting the production and harvesting of salt.

Ministry of Marine and Fisheries (KKP) and the General Statistics Office of Indonesia (BPS) has proposed that the Government of Indonesia import 1.4 million tons of salt this year, of which 226,124 tons will be in the first quarter. Currently, Indonesia's salt reserves reached only 110,000 tons, while the demand of the market salt in the first half was 70,000 tons.

GARAM Company (Persero) designated the exclusive importer said the current salt permit application for imports will be carried out before May 5-2017. Although Indonesia doesn’t release any information about importing salt from which country yet, GARAM also said that they will select base on the lowest price.

KKP also recommends that the Government and the Ministry of Trade of Indonesia temporarily not license imports during harvesting of salt in March this year.

The Vietnam Trade Office in Indonesia evaluated that, this is a good opportunity for the exporters of salt in the country to expand access to the Indonesian market. Therefore, the agency will continue to monitor and report information to the domestic enterprises to use.