Salt production in the country is going at a slow pace this season due to cold wave and adequate stock of the previous season, according to officials of Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC).
The government has set the salt production target for fiscal year (FY) 2013-14 at 1.6 million tonnes.
"The preparation for salt production had been started in mid- December but due to political unrest, a big quantity of last season's stock and import producers are reluctant to go for production," BSCIC deputy general manager (in-charge) of Salt Industries Development Programme, Cox's Bazar Sanjeev Barua told the FE over telephone.
"As the producers could not sell out their old stock they will not be able to store newly produced salt. The total stock of salt stood at around 0.267 million tonnes till January 10 which is the latest compiled figure of the salt production of the country."
"On the other hand, the local importers brought in more than 0.2 million tones of salt last year," he said.
Mr Barua said the political unrest hampered the transportation system from November to December last disrupting storage and supply of salt and ultimately it slowed down the production.
Besides, cold wave also hampered the production of salt in December and January, he said.
The production of salt last season (2012-13) was 1.634 million tonnes while the target was set at 1.52 million tonnes
Salt is mostly produced in Khulna, Satkhira, Chittagong and Cox's Bazar and the production season prolongs from November to mid-May.
Around 48,000 producers produced salt on 70,000 acres of land in 2012-13 season while around 45,000 producers produced salt on more than 64,000 acres of land in 2012-13, BSCIC sources said.
BSCIC chairman Shyam Sunder Sikder said, "The production of salt was surplus last season and we are hopeful that if the weather is favourable the salt producers will be able to reach the target this year."
Salt production mainly depends on the salinity of sea water which is called Part Per Thousand (PPT). It varies from 20 to 35 because of weather and temperature.
There are more than 280 salt mills across the country of which 267 have Salt Iodising Plant (SIP) facility provided by the BSCIC.
More than 47,000 families are directly involved in this sector and livelihood of about 2.5 million people depends on it.
Mr Barua said salt farmers are selling mud-mixed black salt at Tk 90 per maund, mud-free white salt at Tk 128 per maund and salt cultivated in polythene system at Tk 144 per maund to wholesalers.
Meanwhile, the retail price of one kilogram of iodized salt is Tk 15 to Tk 30, according to Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) data.
Cold wave, previous stock slow down salt production this season
Sonia H Moni | Published: January 18, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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