Saving salt farmers with a new plan.

Given the difficult living conditions of salt farmers nationwide due to the extremely low price of salt, the Government has just authorized the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to approve a project to purchase salt from salt farmers for the stable production of iodized salt...

260,000 tons of salt remain unsold.

For many years, salt farmers have been very worried about the situation where domestic salt cannot be sold. At times, the price has dropped to only 300-400 VND/kg, and warehouses are stockpiling large quantities, yet the Ministry of Industry and Trade still allows businesses to import foreign salt.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade explained that the imported salt is industrial salt allocated under quotas, not table salt, and therefore does not affect domestic salt prices. However, the truth is that every time imported salt arrives, even before it reaches the port, domestic salt prices plummet, and salt farmers suffer, worrying about unsold salt.
Worse still, due to lax management, the Southern Basic Chemicals Company Limited, one of the three units granted import quotas for foreign salt by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in 2011, took advantage of the preferential import tax rate of 15% for industrial use to "transform" over 23,000 tons of salt into edible salt and sell it on the market (while edible salt imported outside the quota is subject to a 50% tax rate). This is evidence that foreign salt is harming domestic salt. Clearly, the Ministry of Industry and Trade's justification that imported salt does not affect the price of domestic salt is no longer valid.

Salt farmers are waiting for the iodized salt production project to be implemented soon.

According to Mr. An Van Khanh, Deputy Director of the Department of Agricultural, Forestry, and Fisheries Processing and Salt Production (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), in 2011, the amount of salt allocated by the Ministry of Industry and Trade under the tariff quota was 102,000 tons. However, to date, only the first allocation has been given to three enterprises: Southern Basic Chemicals Company Limited, Viet Tri Chemical Joint Stock Company, and Vedan Vietnam Joint Stock Company, totaling 50,000 tons. The remaining amount has been imported outside the quota by other enterprises. The total amount of imported salt that has arrived in Vietnam to date is 152,000 tons.

Therefore, even though domestic salt production for the whole year of 2011 was only 67% compared to 2010 (due to heavy rain), the amount currently held by salt farmers still amounts to more than 216,000 tons.

According to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ho Xuan Hung, although we only import about 120,000-150,000 tons of salt annually, accounting for about 10% of domestic salt production, improper timing of imports could disrupt the domestic salt market.

Sharing with salt farmers

Whether or not to import foreign salt remains a long-standing debate, as regulatory agencies continue to cite the plausible reason that domestically produced salt does not meet industrial salt standards, lacking high levels of chemicals, thus necessitating continued reliance on imports. However, ensuring the stable livelihoods of over 70,000 struggling salt farmers cannot be delayed any longer.

Therefore, Deputy Minister Ho Xuan Hung stated that after the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development submitted its proposal, the Prime Minister authorized the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to approve the project of purchasing salt from salt farmers to produce and supply iodized salt, and assigned the Northern Food Corporation to implement it.

According to the new plan, instead of temporarily stockpiling salt from salt farmers whenever prices fall, the Northern Food Corporation will act as the central coordinating body, linking with salt production and trading businesses nationwide to periodically purchase approximately 200,000 tons of salt annually at a price that guarantees salt farmers a profit of 20%-30%.

Based on this, approximately 133,000 tons of iodized salt will be produced, of which 22,664 tons will be provided free of charge to people in mountainous areas nationwide according to Decision No. 102/2009/QD-TTg, and the remainder will be sold on the market to meet consumer demand. Deputy Minister Ho Xuan Hung believes that this project will contribute to reducing the annual surplus of salt, alleviating the difficulties faced by tens of thousands of salt farmers. Salt farmers nationwide are eagerly awaiting the project's early implementation!

(According to SGGP)