Salt production yet to gain momentum

Sonia H Moni

The country's salt production is yet to gain momentum as all the producers are not engaged in the process until now, Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) officials said.

 "Farmers usually start producing salt in mid-November. Accordingly two-thirds of the farmers have started production while the rest of them will begin it next month," BSCIC deputy general manager of Salt Industries Development Programme, Cox's Bazar Md Abdul Latif told the FE over telephone.

He said full-fledged production starts from January and continues until mid-May. Some of the producers start their production as shrimp 'ghers' (enclosures) dry up in January.

Mr Latif said the amount of salt produced from mid-November to December 19 is 9,607 tonnes while the production was 8,800 tonnes during the same period last year.

The government has set the salt production target for fiscal year (FY) 2014-15 at 1.8 million tonnes. The production of last season was 1.753 million tonnes whereas the target was 1.6 million tonnes.

Salt is mostly produced in Khulna, Satkhira, Chittagong and Cox's Bazar and the production season continues from mid-November to mid-May.

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