East Java salt farmers suffer as prices plummet

I.D. Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

Thousands of salt farmers in Sampang, Sumenep and Pamekasan regencies on Madura Island, East Java province, are facing a crisis due to the falling price of salt, in some cases by 50 percent.

Aside from the poor quality of the commodity, the influx of imported salt has been blamed for plummeting prices.

Muhammad Toha, a salt farmer in Sumenep, for instance, was forced to sell his prime quality salt for Rp 100,000 (US$11) per ton.

Prime quality salt from Madura sold previously at Rp 200,000 to Rp 250,000 per ton, while lower grade salt was Rp 75,000 per ton.

Farmers have been powerless to negotiate a better price for their salt.

"If I don't sell it, my family cannot eat," Toha told The Jakarta Post recently, although it was barely enough to cover production costs.

Ihsan, a salt farmer in Sampang, is facing the same plight. He admitted suffering huge losses due to the drastic drop in price and demand, especially during the harvest period from July to December.

Toha's and Ihsan's experience is not isolated, and is shared by 8,000 other salt farmers grouped in the Madura Salt Farmers Association.

The association took the initiative to uncover the cause behind the drop, and found that their plight was caused by imported salt flooding the market on Madura.

"Imported salt was the culprit behind the price drop," Ihsan said.

In the past two weeks, farmers have come across two salt freighters anchoring in Tanjung Perak Port, Surabaya.

The first ship was carrying 21,000 tons of salt and the second, 24,000 tons.

"The two ships, the Kiwi and the Pakerin ... were transporting salt from Australia," he said.

The activity is in direct violation of the Minister of Industry and Trade Decree No. 360/2004, which prohibits the importation of salt during the July-December harvest period.

"But what is happening is that salt is being imported freely," said Ihsan.

The imported salt is being handled at a higher standard than local salt, and it has been reported that the salt onboard are packaged in plastic bags and stamped Garindo, or Garam Indonesia (Indonesian salt).

The commodity is taken to warehouses in nearby Margorejo and Gresik to be sold to markets discreetly.

Madura salt farmers have also blamed PT Garam Kalianget for its part in contributing to falling prices.

Although a member of the salt producers association, PT Garam Kalianget had sold their products at lower prices to processing mills like PT Garinso Sejahtera Abadi and PT Budiono, thus lowering demand for products from local farmers.

PT Garam Kalianget managing director Leo Pramuka refuted the allegation, saying the price drop was caused by market mechanisms that had not sided with farmers.

In other words, salt produced by farmers were simply not in demand, and the people obviously preferred imported salt, which was more hygienic.

"What's made matters worse is, farmers' production costs keep rising while the sale price is low, as there is little demand for local salt," said Leo.

The trade ministry has stopped the importation of salt in hopes that local salt would be absorbed by the market gradually.

However, that hope is still far from reality, as salt continues to penetrate the market unchecked.

"I heard that imported salt had entered (recently) by way of Tanjung Perak Port. This is strange, because importers must have an official license (from the government)," Leo said.