President Encourages Application of Innovation Results to Increase Productivity and Quality of People’s Salt

Detiktoday.com – President Joko Widodo chaired a closed meeting to discuss “Accelerating the Absorption of People’s Salt” through a video conference from the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Monday, October 5, 2020. In his introduction, the President highlighted two main problems faced related to the absorption of people’s salt. First, namely the low quality of people’s salt so that it does not meet the standards for industrial needs.

“We have to find a solution. We know the problem, but we have never looked for a solution. Then, the data as of September 22, the data I received, there were still 738 thousand tons of people’s salt that was not absorbed by our industry. can be bought, “said the President.

Second, the national salt production is still low. According to the President, the solution often used is importing salt and this problem has been going on for a long time without any resolution. For example, the national demand for salt in 2020 is 4 million tons per year, while the national salt production has only reached 2 million tons.

“As a result, the allocation of salt for industrial needs is still high, namely 2.9 (million) tonnes. I think we have to take corrective steps, starting from a major overhaul of the supply chain from upstream to downstream,” he added.

To that end, the President asked his staff to pay attention to the availability of production land and requested that the integration and extension of the people’s salt land in 10 provinces be accelerated. Apart from that, the President also encouraged efforts to increase the productivity and quality of people’s salt.

“This means that we really need to really do the use of innovative production technology, especially the washing plant, so that post-production can really provide availability, especially in storage,” he said.

“Once again, the preparation for the development of the downstream salt industry must really be done by then developing the derivative industry,” he said.