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Salt imports ‘not harming local sales'
The fall in domestic salt prices that are hurting farmers badly has not been caused by imports that the government has allowed, says Nguyen Thanh Bien, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade.
Bien told a press conference on Wednesday that the huge volumes of salt that had been imported recently were not covered by the ministry's quota. "Only 20,000 out of 75,000 tonnes of salt that have already imported belongs to the quota," Bien said.
"The amount accounts for only 17 per cent of the total issued quota," he said, explaining that salt could be imported into the country in two ways: using the ministry's quota for low tax rates and unlimited quantities at the normal tax rate.
A total of 170,000 tonnes of salt are expected to be imported during this period of this year. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has issued quotas for 146,000 tonnes while another 24,000 tonnes are awaiting allocation.
Meanwhile, thousands of tonnes of salt produced by farmers in Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta are piling up with no dealers visiting the farms despite the sharp fall in prices.
The ministry's Export and Import Department said this year's quota for the import of salt was 260,000 tonnes, consisting of 180,000 tonnes of industrial salt used to produce chemicals and 80,000 tonnes for daily purposes.
Local newspapers late February cited experts blaming the quota as a reason for the fall in salt prices.
Mai Thanh Hung, Deputy Head of the agriculture and rural development sub-department in southern Bac Lieu Province's Dong Hai District, said the locality was struggling to sell 32,000 tonnes of harvested salt.
Trinh Van Thanh, a farmer in the district's Long Dien Tay Commune, said: "Salt prices have been falling down for a month now. Earlier this year, dealers paid VND25,000-27,000 per 30kg of white salt and VND20,000 for brown salt, but the rates now are VND20,000 and VND14,000 (Respectively)."
"In previous years, dealers flocked to our salt fields, but now I see very few people," said Nguyen Van Thuong, another farmer in the commune.
But Bien said the majority of imported salt was industrial salt – not the kind that farmers produce. So these imports could have no impact on local prices, he added.
Le Xuan, Director of the Agro-Forestry-Fishery Products Processing and Trade Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the excess of supply over demand had caused the fall in prices.
Experts have said the prolonged hot weather conditions predicted to last until April are helping salt farmers in the delta reap a bumper crop, increasing market supply considerably.
Xuan admitted that price of salt in the north was now at VND800-900 per kilogramme as mentioned in several local newspapers, but it was much lower in the delta at about VND300-400 per kilo. This had hurt salt farmers in the delta badly and the ministry should come up with proper measures to help them, he said.
Bien said the ministry was working hard to introduce the needed measures, but was constrained by WTO commitments.
The ministry has attempted to monitor closely the salt imported under its quota by asking importers to report their operations and plans. It will reconsider the quota for the remaining 90,000 tonnes of the 260,000 tonnes under the annual plan, according to the deputy minister.
He said his ministry had also suggested that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development build salt processing facilities towards improving the quality of domestic salt to meet industrial and export standards.
Most industrial establishments in the country prefer imported salt due to their cleanliness and degree of whiteness, experts have said.
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