NTT salt industry needs shake-up

Antara/Jakarta

East Nusa Tenggara has the potential to be a major salt producer for the country but the industry there is suffering from lack of development, an expert says.

The dry province has 5,700 kilometers of coastline much of which would be perfect for the salt evaporation industry, Beach and Sea Development Foundation chairman Yans Koliham said.

About 18,000 hectares of land could be developed into fish farms or salt evaporation ponds. "Sadly, only around 10 percent of this land has been developed," Yans said.

The area was undeveloped because people in the area lacked resources, education and funding, Yans said.

Residents in the Babau and Bipolo subdistricts in Kupang, had only exploited 175 of around 750 hectares that could be developed, Yans said.

Ateng Supriyatna, the deputy director general for processing and marketing with the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, agrees about the area's potential.

The demand for salt across the nation had been increasing year on year, Ateng said. While in 1999 national demand for salt was 2.04 million tons it had risen steadily in subsequent years to 2.65 million tons last year, he said

In order to meet demand, the government imported salt from Australia and India last year with imports in 2003 reaching 1.42 million tons and domestic production at 1.14 million tons.

Last year, imports rose 1.8 million tons while domestic output also increased to 1.38 million tons.

East Nusa Tenggara has also imported salt to meet local demand. Provincial Trade and Industry Office industry chief Toga Butar-Butar said the province last year imported 3,858 tons of salt from Surabaya to meet demand of 12,000 tons last year. The province, which has four million people, produced only 3,858 tons of salt last year.

A banking marketing manager said people in the province had not yet caught on to the benefits of salt evaporation farming in the province, which was reflected in the low number of seed loans disbursed to new businesses.

Bank NTT marketing director Anton Bata said salt farmers also lacked modern management skills.

"They are still not professional. Once they get the money, the money is not channeled into business expansion but used for vacations or entertaining their families," Anton said.

With its vast natural resources and underemployed population, the province was a perfect place to develop the industry, Anton said.