Indonesia produced only 137,600 tons of salt last year, merely 4.6 percent of the 3 million ton target, an economist has said.

“Strong rain was the main cause of failure in salt production. We cannot challenge nature,” said Faisal Basri, as reported by tribunnews.com on Tuesday.

The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry’s director general for sea territory management, Brahmantya Setyamurni Poerwadi, further explained that heavy rainfall during the usual dry season had seriously hampered the salt production.

(Read also: Indonesia expects 42% increase in salt imports this year)

“The salt farmers could not optimally produce salt, because rain was still falling in the dry season,” Brahmantya said.

The official said the government could not implement a plan to construct facilities allowing farmers to produce salt in any season because it had not allocated funds for the project.

What the government could do was to construct warehouses for cooperatives, so that the salt farmers could store their production, Brahmantya added. “That would help farmers produce more salt to fulfill demand all year round.”

Previously, the ministry’s maritime services director, Riyanto Basuki, said another reason for the meager salt production was that many farmers had converted their salt field into fishponds or just left them idle. (bbn)

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