Ending the 2011 salt harvest, salt farmers have been worried about drop in salt prices once again when the Ministry of Industry and Trade advocated for imported 50,000 tons of salt more for industrial production.

Ending the 2011 salt harvest, salt farmers have been worried about drop in salt prices once again when the Ministry of Industry and Trade advocated for imported 50,000 tons of salt more for industrial production.

Mr. Huynh Van Thuyet , Chairman of Cho Ben Salt Production and Aquaculture Services Cooperative (Long Dien district) was concerned, An Ngai commune is remaining approximately 10,000 tons of salt from the previous harvest, this is more than 20,000 tons have not been consumed yet . The price of salt has now moved up about VND 750,000 / ton which is not profitable for farmers. If salt is agreed to import, farmers cannot sell, then the salt price will continue to fall. Not only Mr. Thuyet, many salt makers also shared, in March 2010, right after the Ministry of Industry and Trade announced the import quota for 260,000 tons of salt, domestic salt price immediately plummeted, leaving millions of people fall into difficulties. In the previous year, salt had good price in spite of bad harvest; but salt both fail the harvest and prices in recent two years, if the State allowed to import salt, then salt farmers are heaped up difficulties.

As reported by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in 2011, salt production area of ​​the whole country reached 14.854ha and to the end of May, the salt production over the country obtained about 415,000 tons, of which salt for industrial production is approximately 76,000 tons. Through the balance in 2011, salt supply has exceeded demand than 110,000 tons, met the demands of people welfare as well as other economic sectors. Particularly in Ba Ria - Vung Tau province, the salt output reached more than 68,500 tons, excluding the existence from the previous harvest. According to the estimates, the province has now over 40,000 tons of salt remaining in the public and businesses, mostly black salt for industrial production. With a large number of remaining salt, salt price is hard to increase in the future. Besides, due to salt farmers in Northern and Central provinces are entering the peak harvest, importing salt will, in this time, bring negative impacts on the salt prices and consumption of salt farmers.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development had a written request to the Ministry of Industry and Trade not to allocate the second import quota of 50,000 tons of salt for industrial production, to facilitate for farmers to consume at reasonable price and get interest. However, this is only a temporary solution, salt farmers and businesses operating in the salt reckoned that, in the long run, the State should have an investment plan for salt farmers to produce high quality salt, increase the yield of salt. Simultaneously, t is necessary to form support and protection policies for domestic production by establishing tariff barriers to imported salt for fair competition with domestic salt production, which help farmers secure and stabilize production.