Kupang’s Salt Potential and Nunkurus Visit, Explained

Labuan Bajo — — Kupang Regency has been repeatedly cited as having several thousand hectares of land that could host salt ponds, but only a small fraction of that area was in active use when President Joko Widodo visited the main site at Nunkurus on 21 August 2019, according to official and media reports.

During that visit to Nunkurus village in East Kupang sub-district, President Widodo said East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) had approximately 21,000 hectares of potential salt pond area, with around 7,000 hectares in Kupang Regency itself. He noted that the program there had “started” on a planned 600-hectare block, of which only about 10 hectares had been built into operating ponds at the time, with completion of the full 600 hectares targeted for the following year, according to the Presidential Secretariat.

The statements marked a shift from earlier provincial figures that spoke of roughly 10,000 hectares of potential salt ponds in NTT — including about 7,000 hectares in Kupang — spread across Bipolo, Sulamu, Babau, Merdeka, Oebelo and Tanah Merah, as reported by national media in 2014. Those earlier numbers were framed as potential land area rather than output capacity and did not identify how much was legally available, surveyed, or backed by feasibility studies.

Potential area versus developed ponds

The gap between mapped potential and active ponds was clear at Nunkurus in August 2019. The Presidential Secretariat’s coverage of Widodo’s visit described the site as operating over about 10 hectares, from a planned 600-hectare salt pond area within Kupang Regency’s wider 7,000-hectare potential. An English-language briefing from the Cabinet Secretariat the same day similarly said that, although 600 hectares had been earmarked, only 10 hectares had actually been turned into ponds.

Independent environmental reporting soon after that visit cited provincial officials as saying that Nunkurus’ 11 hectares of developed ponds could produce around 350 tonnes of industrial salt, with a sodium chloride content of 96–97 percent, and that full development of the 600-hectare block could yield up to 60,000 tonnes a year. These figures were presented as indicative potential, not as results from completed operations.

Provincial government documents from August 2019 show that officials were still measuring and certifying state-managed land for salt development in several Kupang locations. A report from the information office in NTT records that the province received a management-rights certificate covering about 1,694 hectares in Merdeka, Babau, Nunkurus and Oelatimo on 21 August 2019, underscoring that land status in key salt areas was still being formalised at the time.

Workforce, wages and investors

Media reports ahead of the presidential visit quoted Kupang officials saying that roughly 600 local workers were already employed at the Nunkurus salt ponds, with daily pay of about Rp100,000. Those reports stressed that the workers were spread over only about 11 hectares of ponds and that the broader 600-hectare potential had yet to be developed.

Later coverage of NTT’s salt industry identified several private operators in Kupang Regency, including PT Timor Livestock Lestari at Nunkurus, as well as other companies working in Nunkurus and Bipolo. By 2021 these firms were reported to be managing hundreds of hectares of salt ponds in Kupang, though still far short of the multi-thousand-hectare potential cited by national and provincial officials.

Reading the 7,000–10,000-hectare claim

Taken together, the official statements and media reports show that the 7,000–10,000-hectare figures for Kupang refer to potential area that could be used for salt ponds under favourable conditions.

They do not, on their own, establish how much of that land is technically suitable, has clear tenure, meets environmental requirements or is backed by investment for full-scale production.

At Nunkurus in August 2019, only around 10–11 hectares were operating within a planned 600-hectare block, and provincial authorities were still in the process of securing management rights and clarifying land boundaries in several salt-producing villages. The figures cited by officials and the president therefore indicate the scale of possible expansion rather than a guarantee that the full potential has been realised.

Sources

• Presiden Jokowi Tinjau Produksi Tambak Garam di Kupang Timur
• Gov't to Ensure Sufficient Salt Production
• Presiden Panen Garam di Kupang, Bisakah NTT Penuhi Kebutuhan Garam Nasional?
• Produksi Garam di Pulau Sabu Gunakan Teknologi Geomembran
• Potensi Lahan Tambak Garam di Kupang Diperkirakan 10.000 Ha
• PEMERINTAH PROVINSI NUSA TENGGARA TIMUR – August 2019 land and asset report (PDF)
• Luas Lahan Potensi Garam di NTT Capai 24 Ribu Hektar