REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, 

JAKARTA – Government has decided to import 500,000 tonnes salt to fulfill domestic needs, the General Director of Trade Affair in the Ministry of Trade, Deddy Saleh, said on Friday. “The import is to fulfill the need during 3.5 months with a month stock around 500,000 tonnes,” he said. 

The agreement was derived from the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Trade and Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs. The government, he added, would set the list of companies allowed to import the salt according to their performance. 

“They still have to absorb the farmers’ salt production until the end of February,” he argued. In the previous occasion, Saleh said that the government should allow the import of salt before the salt harvest started. 

The government will ensure that no imported salt come to Indonesia a month before the 2012 harvest, which is usually in July and August. The government calculates that the salt stock is around 306,000 tonnes salt before the harvest time. It is insufficient while our consumption is 120,000 tonnes per month.

Previously objected the salt import, the Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Cicip Sutardjo, shifted his position. Yet, he firmly said, “In the next two or three months when we can produce the salt, the import will be stopped,” he said. 

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