PT Garam Reveals Indonesia's Real Challenges, States Surplus by 2026

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - PT Garam’s Director of Operations and Development, Syarifuddin, stated that Indonesia is already capable of fulfilling its own salt needs, specifically consumption salt for domestic requirements. He made this remark at the Food Summit 2026 CNBC Indonesia, themed “Food Safety in Blue Economy”, held in Jakarta on Monday (27/4/2026). He noted that the upcoming challenge is to achieve self-sufficiency in industrial salt production in the country. “Regarding salt self-sufficiency, one of the government’s priority programmes, PT Garam is carrying out and planning intensification. Because people’s land can still be optimised; there is still a lot of unproductive land,” he said. Furthermore, he added, there are still lands managed by both the public and the government that can be developed to significantly boost national salt production. With the addition of technological support, he continued, salt production in Indonesia will be further enhanced. In this regard, he said, Danantara has conducted groundbreaking for a salt production centre to increase national production at four locations. “We see this as providing hope for self-sufficiency by 2027. For consumption salt, this year 2026 can actually already be fulfilled. Surplus,” he stated. “Our challenge is how in 2027 to meet the needs and the gap for industrial salt. This is our challenge,” said Syarifuddin. Regarding consumption salt production, he explained, it can currently still be done conventionally. That is, it is greatly influenced by environmental conditions. However, this system cannot be applied to produce industrial salt, because there is no stability. For that reason, he added, PT Garam is establishing collaborations, including with Pertamina. As information, PT Garam has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional (KPI) to explore cooperation in developing the Balikpapan Salt Processing Plant. This strategic step is taken to support the National Salt Development Acceleration Programme and strengthen salt industry independence. It is known that this cooperation serves as the basis for both parties to jointly evaluate the utilisation of output from the Balikpapan Refinery Unit V utility facilities, particularly brine water from the desalination process, which has the potential to be processed into industrial salt. This initiative is in line with government policies as stipulated in Presidential Regulation No. 17 of 2025 on the Acceleration of National Salt Development, which targets reducing dependence on salt imports.