Apart from the abundant amount of fish and coral reef, Indonesia also has other precious potentials from its sea. It’s the salt. Many years back, Indonesians have their own ways to get salt. Maluku people would pour sea water into a fire, then boiling the ashes using sea water. Meanwhile during dry season, Javanese would create holes around beach and fill it with sea water. They would get the crystals of salt from the evaporation process. Here is the list of the 6 largest salt producers in Indonesia.
- Madura
Madura, located in East Java Province, is known as the largest salt producer area in Java Island. It’s supported by its warm weather with the humidity of 80% and the rainfall rate of 186 mm per year. Madura weather condition is highly recommended for salt production since you need to have enough sunshine for evaporation process. The salt production area are located along the beach in the south of Madura. In 2018, Sumenep District has salt production area of 1.460 ha, producing around 236.887 tons. Meanwhile Sampang District has salt production area of 2.814 ha, producing 346.666 tons. However, salt production is also highly impacted by climate change on marine ecosystems in Indonesia.
- Cirebon
Cirebon has been known as the largest salt producer in West Java Province. Even in one dry season, they can produce thousands of tons of salt. In 2018, Cirebon produced around 483 thousands of tons of salt, it exceeded the target of 350 thousands of tons. However, the salt quality is not that good, since the salt only contains 20% of NaCl as a good salt should contain NaCl rate of 94%. However, global warming also plays big role for this industry.
The low rate of NaCl is impacted by some factors, such as the short harvest time, around 3-4 days, as the ideal harvest time is around 7-15 days. Another factor is the salt farmers don’t have proper storages, so most of them directly sell the salt. However, abundant amount of salt production makes Cirebon as one of the 6 largest salt producers in Indonesia.
- Pati
Pati makes salt as its precious product, as they are able to produce up to 500 tons of salt per day. No wonder Pati becomes the third largest salt producer in Indonesia, they even have Gudang Garam Nasional (National Salt Storage) unit. There are around 20 villages of salt production in Pati, with the total area of 2.828 ha and 7.781 salt farmers. To support their farmers, the local government has stopped the expansion proposal from salt producer from Australia since it can significantly affect the local production. Besides salt, Indonesia also has various kinds of tectonic lakes.
- Indramayu
Besides Cirebon, Indramayu is another great salt producer in West Java Province. The salt farmers in Indramayu are determined to increase the salt production to provide national consumption needs and improve their own wealthiness. Indramayu has implemented the latest technology of geo isolator for the production process, therefore, the salt quality can fulfill the salt company’s standard. This approach also successfully increases the salt production to 318.335 tons in 2018. There are some characteristics and facts of Java Sea that you need to know.
- Bima
West Nusa Tenggara is also considered as an important salt producer in Indonesia. They have Bima with its potential salt production with an area of 4.620 ha, yet currently it’s only half of the area that has been used. Bima can produce 152 tons of salt per year. Apart from that, the white mound of salt also becomes the unique tourist attraction in Bima.
- Kupang
Salt production potential in Kupang is relatively similar as in Australia. Kupang has around 60.000 ha of salt farms potential, however, currently it’s only 21.000 ha of farms that have been optimized. Kupang can produce up to 2,6 millions of tons of salts every year. The salt production in Kupang gives multiple benefits as it can provide jobs for its people. The local government determines to make Kupang as one of the largest salt producers in Indonesia.
So that is the list of the 6 largest salt producers in Indonesia. You may need to know about some popular lakes in Indonesia. Hopefully this information is useful for you.