Ban on salt import on cards to save affected growers
Syful Islam | Friday, 25 February 2011
Syful Islam
A move is underway to ban import of salt with a view to saving its producers and small-scale refiners, official sources have said. "Most of the opinions that came from both the private sector and government functionaries are against import of salt since local production capacity is enough to meet the demand," a joint secretary at the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) told the FE Thursday. "Since everyone is favouring the ban, we will take steps immediately in this connection," he added. Sources said only 12 big concerns import salt from India and Myanmar and are making hefty profit selling per kilogram of salt for as high as Tk 20. On the other hand, the salt growers are getting only Tk 1 to Tk 2 selling per kg of salt which is much less than the production cost. In the last fiscal, local farmers produced 1.7 million tonnes of salt against the country's total demand of 1.33 million tonnes. This fiscal's total production target is 1.37 million tonnes of salt. Sources said the MoC Thursday convened a meeting and discussed the issue with salt growers and refiners. At the meeting, the ministry officials have assured the farmers of taking a concrete decision in the next 10 days. At the meeting, the farmers said they would return to salt farming upon getting assurance of imposition of ban on salt import. "If the salt import is banned, we will be sure of getting logical price for our products," F M Nurul Alam, member-secretary of Salt Farmers' Association told the meeting. Nurul Kabir, vice president of Salt Mill Owners Association, an organisation of over 400 salt mills, demanded price fixation of salt at the farmers' level if the ban is imposed. He assured of providing salt at Tk 8 per kg at consumers' level if everyone followed the price fixed by the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC). According to him, most of the small factories are dying for failing to compete with the big industrial giants. Sources said the government officials of different ministries and departments present at the meeting also favoured ban on salt import. Commerce Minister Faruk Khan on February 21 in Cox's Bazar assured the salt growers of taking a decision on the issue within a month. About 45,000 farmers are directly involved in salt farming while the number of associated people in the industry is over 0.5 million, stakeholders claim. They grow salt on 70,000 acres of land, most of which are in Cox's Bazar and Chokoria districts.
A move is underway to ban import of salt with a view to saving its producers and small-scale refiners, official sources have said. "Most of the opinions that came from both the private sector and government functionaries are against import of salt since local production capacity is enough to meet the demand," a joint secretary at the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) told the FE Thursday. "Since everyone is favouring the ban, we will take steps immediately in this connection," he added. Sources said only 12 big concerns import salt from India and Myanmar and are making hefty profit selling per kilogram of salt for as high as Tk 20. On the other hand, the salt growers are getting only Tk 1 to Tk 2 selling per kg of salt which is much less than the production cost. In the last fiscal, local farmers produced 1.7 million tonnes of salt against the country's total demand of 1.33 million tonnes. This fiscal's total production target is 1.37 million tonnes of salt. Sources said the MoC Thursday convened a meeting and discussed the issue with salt growers and refiners. At the meeting, the ministry officials have assured the farmers of taking a concrete decision in the next 10 days. At the meeting, the farmers said they would return to salt farming upon getting assurance of imposition of ban on salt import. "If the salt import is banned, we will be sure of getting logical price for our products," F M Nurul Alam, member-secretary of Salt Farmers' Association told the meeting. Nurul Kabir, vice president of Salt Mill Owners Association, an organisation of over 400 salt mills, demanded price fixation of salt at the farmers' level if the ban is imposed. He assured of providing salt at Tk 8 per kg at consumers' level if everyone followed the price fixed by the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC). According to him, most of the small factories are dying for failing to compete with the big industrial giants. Sources said the government officials of different ministries and departments present at the meeting also favoured ban on salt import. Commerce Minister Faruk Khan on February 21 in Cox's Bazar assured the salt growers of taking a decision on the issue within a month. About 45,000 farmers are directly involved in salt farming while the number of associated people in the industry is over 0.5 million, stakeholders claim. They grow salt on 70,000 acres of land, most of which are in Cox's Bazar and Chokoria districts.