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Vietnam imports more salt to cope with first shortage in decades
Though blessed with more than 3,000 km of coastline favourable for salt making, Vietnam is facing a serious shortage of salt for the first time in five decades, especially common salt.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has asked the government to raise salt import quotas to 430,000 tonnes, including 100,000 tonnes of common salt, for this year to fill in the shortage.
However, it is estimated that local businesses will have to pay 100 USD for a tonne of imported salt, the highest price in the world as against the world price of between 20-25 USD per tonne.
The MARD predicts that the country will need about 1.38 million tonnes of salt for both daily use and production this year, while domestic makers are able to produce between 900,000-950,000 tonnes.
In the first six months of the year, local salt makers supplied the market with close to 539,000 tonnes of salt.
According to Vice Director General of the Vietnam Salt Corporation Le Nguyen Chuong, salt makers had a bad harvest in the first six months due to unfavourable weather, with outputs ranging from 20 percent to 70 percent of the normal productivity.
Besides the impact of weather, salt makers have fallen victim to industrialisation with many of their fields turned into industrial zones, urban areas and tourism sites, as it was seen in Phan Thiet and Nghi Son.
For example, the salt fields in southern Binh Thuan province’s Ca Na area, which supplies 50,000 tonnes of common and industrial salt a year, the highest output in the country, have been targeted to become an industrial zone.
Worse still, many salt makers have shifted to other trades because of low profits they earned from the business while they have to work very hard.
Experts forecast that salt supply will continue to shrink for years while the demand of processing industries is rising.
They recommended that the Government provide more support for salt makers to maintain existing salt fields and raise productivity and work out a long-term plan for the salt industry.
VNA
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