Farmers are harvesting salt in the southern province of Binh Thuan — Photo tintucnongnghiep.com

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has limited import quota for industrial salt to only 102,000 tonnes in a bid to support domestic salt production, the ministry’s chemical department said.

The decision will take effect from July 1 and last until December 31, according to the Cong Thuong (Industry & Trade) newspaper.

Although the demand for industrial salt import is very high, MoIT still has to tighten import quota for salt so as not to affect the domestic salt industry, Nguyen Van Thanh, head of the chemical department, said.

The salt import quota has been limited to 102,000 tonnes, but in practice, the actual quantity of salt allowed to be imported may be much lower than the quota, estimated to be just some 40,000 tonnes, Thanh said.

According to the Agro-Forestry Processing and Salt Industry Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the first two months of 2017, the quantity of handmade salt reached nearly 2,600 tonnes while industrial salt touched over 11,100 tonnes.

By the end of February 2017, the total quantity of stockpiled salt was estimated at some 400,000 tonnes. However, many enterprises producing chemicals and medicines continue to face a shortage of industrial salt.

Salt produced in the country is mostly handmade and used for cooking and food processing, while enterprises need industrial salt refined from crude salt to use as the main raw material in medical products and chemical production.

Therefore, enterprises are greatly in need of industrial salt, which has low domestic production due to a low-tech salt refining facilities, a chemical manufacturing company based in HCM City told Cong Thuong newspaper. — VNS