State sponsored project as the country aims for self-sufficiency after U-turn on imports.

The Indonesian government is promising an investment in its salt industry of US$122.6M to create a National Salt Industry Center (K-SIGN). It will be focused on a large-scale solar salt operation with a proposed capacity of 5Mtpy, which is being developed in Rote Ndao, East Nusa Tenggara Province by the state.  The government is targeting a shift towards self-sufficiency in salt production by 2027, particularly for industrial-grade salt.

The project was announced by the Minister for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Sakti Wahyu Trenggono, who stated that the Rote lake area for salt production is approximately 10,000 hectares and it will be based on bay water. The project is scheduled to begin in July this year, covering 1,300 hectares and then a second phase to be launched in 2026 covering 9,000 hectares, with first production in 2027. It is hoped that the K-Sign will create 26,600 jobs for the local population.

The government’ s first initiative to ban salt imports, has seen a turnaround in recent weeks after mounting pressure from domestic industries that were unable to secure enough raw material. Under previous regulation, the government had aimed to halt all salt imports in January 2025, but this has now been postponed until 2027 due to the insufficient local capacity. This was outlined in the Presidential Regulation No.17 of 2025 on accelerating national salt industry development.

In 2024, salt production in Indonesia was 2.0Mt, down from 2.6Mt in 2023. Salt imports have consistently been over 2.6Mt over the last five years, reaching 2.75Mt in 2024. The main exporter to Indonesia is Australia, which supplied 2.02Mt in 2024, followed by India (0.72Mt).  The government is aiming to boost domestic capacity to reduce its dependence on imported salt.