Pursuing Self-Sufficiency by 2027, Indef: Government Must Reform Salt Import Governance

The Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) has stated that the government’s target to stop salt imports by 2027 will not be achieved as long as the national salt balance sheet is not compiled transparently and based on verifiable data on supply and industrial needs. Head of Indef’s Macro Economics and Finance Centre, Muhammad Rizal Taufikurahman, said that without an accurate balance sheet, import policies are vulnerable to being set above real needs and their utilisation is often misused. He therefore stressed that import policy must be based on an accurate industrial needs balance sheet and carried out selectively according to specifications that cannot yet be met domestically. “Import policy must be accompanied by distribution supervision so that it does not enter the consumer market, and integrated with the obligation to absorb local salt that has met quality standards,” Rizal said in his statement on Tuesday, 30 June 2026. As an illustration, national salt production currently stands at around 2.5 million tonnes per year, while domestic demand reaches approximately 4.9 million tonnes and is projected to rise to 5.3 million tonnes by 2029. More than 55 per cent of salt needs in 2024 were still met through imports, especially for high-specification industrial salt. This deficit mainly occurs in the industrial salt segment, not consumer salt. To overcome this deficit, the Government has issued Presidential Regulation Number 17 of 2025 concerning the Acceleration of National Salt Development as a foundation for salt self-sufficiency by 2027, where the private sector is also invited to invest to support this programme. However, challenges in quality and supply continuity should not continue to be used as justification for expanding imports, especially given that a number of domestic salt industry players have successfully adopted purification technology and quality standardisation that does not depend on the weather. In addition, the Government is also developing the National Salt Industry Centre Area (K-SIGN) in Rote Ndao, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), which is a national priority programme of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries to support salt self-sufficiency by 2027. Local capacity that has met standards must be calculated objectively in the national needs balance sheet. Without a strong oversight mechanism, there is a risk that import requirements will be set too loosely, while viable domestic production is not taken into account, one example being the food and beverage industry segment which receives special treatment in the applicable regulations.