COX'S BAZAR, Apr 12: Salt fields across vast areas in Cox's Bazar have been severely damaged by nor'wester winds and continuous heavy rainfall, leaving marginal farmers in a bind.
Large quantities of harvested and in-process salt have dissolved in rainwater, causing catastrophic losses to farmers.
Heavy rain and stormy winds that swept through the region on Tuesday and Wednesday nights caused extensive damage to salt fields in Cox's Bazar Sadar, Pekua, Maheshkhali, and Kutubdia upazilas.
Salt, often referred to as "white gold," that had already crystallised in the fields melted away overnight.
In addition, the salt beds prepared for further production were also damaged, meaning farmers will need at least five to seven days to restart production, according to those concerned.
The affected areas include Chaufaldandi and Eidgaon in Cox's Bazar Sadar, Magnama and Rajakhali in Pekua, Kutubjom and Baro Maheshkhali in Maheshkhali upazila , and large parts of Kutubdia's salt fields.
Mufti Masum , a salt farmer from Satghona in Magnama, Pekua, said, "At the end of the season, we were working day and night hoping for a little more profit. But just one hour of rain washed away several hundred maunds of salt. Now we have to prepare the fields all over again, which is very costly."
Zaker Ahmed , a farmer from Kariardwia in Ujantia, said, "Salt prices were already low. On top of that, this storm has ruined everything. I leased the field by taking loans, and now I have no idea how I will repay them."
Similar losses were reported by Rafiqul Islam from Harighona in Baro Maheshkhali and Gias Uddin from Ghatibhanga in Kutubjom. Gias Uddin said, "We were already facing losses because of low salt prices. This storm has destroyed everything. I am worried about how I will manage the burden of debt."
According to the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), the country's salt demand for the 2025-26 season is around 2.715 million tonnes. To meet this demand, more than 41,000 farmers are engaged in salt production on nearly 69,000 acres of land in Cox's Bazar and Banshkhali in Chattogram.
In Maheshkhali alone, salt is being cultivated on around 17,000 acres this season. Under favorable weather conditions, the island typically produces between 250,000 and 350,000 tonnes of salt, accounting for nearly 25 percent of the country's total production.
Md. Jafar Iqbal Bhuiyan, deputy general manager of the BSCIC Cox's Bazar Salt Industry
Development Office, said that several thousand acres of salt fields were damaged by the recent rainfall. As saline water has
become diluted by fresh rainwater, farmers will now have to spend more on labour and fuel to resume production.
Farmers say the production cost per maund of salt ranges between Tk 250 and Tk 280, yet they are still not getting fair prices in the market. This latest disaster has only deepened their financial hardship. For many who leased fields through loans, recovering from this setback now seems like biggest challenge.
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