INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta- The People's Coalition for Fisheries Justice (KIARA) assesses that annual salt imports to overcome the scarcity of stocks are a result of Indonesia's not serious development of salt production technology.

KIA Secretary General Susan Herawati explains that there must be a political commitment or political will to strengthen national cultivation, one of them through technological assistance, so that salt production no longer uses conventional methods that depend on the weather.

"Import is the impact of us who never seriously develop the technology.There must be political will of the nation to stop imports and strengthen the national Salt," Susan said at a discussion in Jakarta, Friday (08/11/2017

She said the salt farmers need to get capital or assistance in technology, because good quality salt needs iodized machines and production technologies that do not rely on the weather.

Currently the salt production system in Indonesia uses evaporation system, ie sea water is flowed into the pond and then the water is allowed to evaporate, after a while the remaining salt will settle at the bottom of the pond.

However, the wet dry weather conditions experienced today cause many farmers to fail to harvest due to rain.

Therefore, KIARA requested the government to implement the mandate of Law No. 7 of 2016 on Protection and Empowerment of Fishermen, Fish Cultivators and Pond Salak.

In Article 51 of Law Number 7/2017, the central government and regional governments are obliged to provide ease of access covering technology, technology transfer cooperation and provision of facilities for fishermen, fish farmers and salt farmers.

On different occasions, Chairman of Indonesian Food and Beverage Entrepreneurs Association (GAPMMI) Adhi Lukman said Indonesia needs to learn technology from Australia as a country of origin of Indonesian salt import.

"I think the best one is like in Australia, that is to make a salt field, so the salt field is essentially salt, but that can be harvested is salt on it," Adhi said.

Indonesia has opened tap imports 75 thousand tons of consumption salt from Australia to be done in stages.

The quality of Australian salt is considered better than Indonesia due to more evenly distributed summer and supported by qualified heating technology.