LHOKSEUMAWE – President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) inaugurated the NPK Pupuk Iskandar Muda (PIM) factory located in the Arun Special Economic Zone (SEZ), Lhokseumawe, Aceh, Friday (10/2/2023). The factory with an investment value of around Rp 1.7 trillion has a production capacity of 500,000 tons per year.

President Director of PT Pupuk Indonesia (Persero), Bakir Pasaman said that the new factory owned by PT Pupuk Iskandar Muda (PT PIM) was the work of the nation's children, because it adopted the chemical process technology belonging to PT Petrokimia Gresik which incidentally is a subsidiary of Pupuk Indonesia and fellow EPC companies. BUMN, namely PT PP.

"As a BUMN that plays a role in supplying fertilizer for national needs, the presence of the PIM NPK factory is a concrete manifestation in meeting the needs of farmers. Bakir revealed that the presence of the PIM NPK factory increased the production capacity of the NPK Pupuk Indonesia Group to 3.7 million tons per year from the previous 3.2 million tons. Currently, the national demand for NPK is projected to be around 13.5 million tons, provided that most of it comes from private fertilizer producers and imported fertilizers.

"Fertilizer products from the PIM NPK factory are expected to help meet the need for fertilizer in the Northern Sumatra (Sumbagut) and Aceh regions, as well as for the need for non-subsidized fertilizer," said Bakir.

Bakir further explained that PT PIM, which is a subsidiary of Pupuk Indonesia, also has urea fertilizer factories, namely PIM 1 and PIM 2, each with a capacity of 570,000 tons per year, so that PT PIM's total production capacity is around 1.14 million tons per year.

The PIM 1 factory itself has not been operating since 2012 because it did not receive gas supply. However, since early 2022, this factory has been successfully reactivated after obtaining gas supply, thus helping to strengthen PT PIM's ability to meet national fertilizer needs.

In his remarks, Jokowi said that almost all countries in the world are currently experiencing a food crisis caused by one of the problems with fertilizers. Jokowi explained that the high price of fertilizer was caused by many things, one of which was the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. “Lately, every time I go to the village and meet the farmers there are always complaints about fertilizers, especially subsidized fertilizers. The need for fertilizer (NPK) in Indonesia is 13.5 million tons, while only 3.5 million tons have been fulfilled. This is what we have to overcome.', said Jokowi.

On this occasion, Jokowi also expressed his appreciation to the Ministry of BUMN for the success of re-operating the PIM-1 Factory. “I see that in Aceh there are two fertilizer factories that have not been operating for years due to a lack of gas supply. Then I assigned the Minister of BUMN to carry it out. "Regarding the need for gas, we will look for it later so that the fertilizer problem can be overcome because after all fertilizer is our basic need," added the President.

Meanwhile, the Minister of BUMN, Erick Thohir, said that the construction of the PIM NPK factory was one of BUMN's efforts to support the vision of Indonesia Gold 2045, especially regarding food security. "This project will also provide a multiplier effect for the economy of the Aeh people and is projected to increase Aceh's GRDP by 4.13%," said the Minister of BUMN.