The country has 36,000 kilometers of shoreline but to make salt, the country needs only 6 percent of this shoreline to become self-sufficient in this vital cooking and preserving ingredient.
Yet through all the years, we have been importing 550,000 metric tons of salt or up to 93 percent of our requirement from Australia and China, said Kabayan Partylist Rep. Ron Salo who filed House Bill 1976 to revitalize the salt industry.
“This is ironic considering that the Philippines has 36,000 kilometers of shoreline—the fifth longest shoreline in the world—which can be utilized for massive salt production,” Salo had said.
Salo said the government must undertake immediate steps to address the problems and revitalize the local salt industry.
The proposed law called for the establishment of the Administration for Salt Industry Development, Revitalization and Optimization, with the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Trade and Industry co-leading the interagency body.
He attributed the decline in salt production to outdated policy, low-quality control and product improvement, limited sourcing and development of new production areas, unattractive business environment for small enterprises, and lack of new investments.
Salo added that the success of the Act for Salt Iodization Nationwide (ASIN) (Republic Act 8172) law in combating the country’s iodine deficiency came with a price as “local salt farmers were marginalized in the massive shift to iodization that required the use of additional machinery and technology.”
Under the measure, a comprehensive plan for the development of the local salt industry will be developed and incentives will be granted to salt farmers and exporters.
Review RA8172
Danilo Fausto, president of the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food in May 2021, urged the government to review Republic Act No. 8172 to provide the much-needed boost to the salt sector and its producers, the Inquirer reported.
“I think we should take a look at this. In the proposed budget, not a single centavo is allocated to salt,” he said.
P500-M to revitalize salt industry
Just last August 25, comebacking DA Undersecretary Doming Panganiban brought attention to the problem of salt supply and low local production.
Panganiban, once DA secretary for two past administrations, said the department would focus on scaling up salt production.
“We have to produce salt to balance requests. We have [a] shortfall for industry and commercial uses,” Panganiban told Inquirer.
Panganiban said the DA would work on bolstering local output to reduce the country’s dependence on imported salt and the government would have to earmark about P500 million to revitalize the salt industry.
Fausto earlier called for a significant budget for the local salt industry because the country sourcing 93 percent of its salt needs. “We are now importing almost a million tons of salt and we need this salt very badly.”
The pandemic’s strict lockdowns had greatly eroded the country’s almost-negligible salt production and marketing such that in Dasol town in Pangasinan, stocks piled high because of mobility and logistics problems.
Users
Companies that heavily rely on soy sauce, “patis” (fish sauce), “bagoong” (fish paste) and other salt-based products have cut their production since March 2020, said Mayor Noel Nacar as he said warehouses are full of salt harvested the previous summer and production was due in two months.
Salt farmers usually start preparing their “banigan” (salt beds) before the rainy season in October in time for harvest from December to May. Dasol produces clean and high-quality solar, or rock salt, called “barara,” for industrial use, as well as fine salt, which is cooked in big pots to remove impurities for household consumption.
Top producer
At least eight of the town’s 18 villages produce 18,000 metric tons of salt every year, making it the province’s top salt producer. These are Bobonot, Hermosa, Amalbalan, Gais-Guipe, Poblacion, Magsaysay, Malacapas and Uli, which are all located along the Dasol Bay.
If combined with the salt produced in the towns of Bolinao and Bani, and in Alaminos City, Pangasinan could produce an average of 74,765 MT annually, which is among the highest salt productions by a province in the country.
Nacar said most salt farm and warehouse owners like him were still hoping to get buyers of their stock until December. Despite the market slack, salt farm workers did not lose their jobs as farms were turned into fishponds during the rainy months, allowing operators to pay their wages.
Pacific Farms Inc. in Bolinao is a mechanized commercial salt farm that uses different technologies to hasten the evaporation of water and speed salt crystallization by increasing temperatures at salt beds through solar heaters and solar coils. PGI produces 25,000 tons a year from its 473- hectare farm.
But Dasol’s salt farms have about 10,000 banigan found in 11 villages that produce 18,000 metric tons of salt every year.
But their total production hardly makes a dent in the country’s requirement for salt, which is 600,000 MT a year.
Gerald Khonghun, PFI’s operations manager, said the country used to be self-sufficient in salt 40 years ago. He said the country imports 70 percent of its salt requirement from Australia (446,000 MT) and 20 percent (87,000 MT) from China.
Long shoreline
The younger Khonghun said the country’s shoreline spans 36,000 kilometers and salt could easily be produced even if the government would tap only 69 km of this span.
“The Ilocos region alone has 845 km of shoreline, and only 8 percent of that would make us self-sufficient,” he said.
“Producing what the country needs would involve only 12,000 to 13,000 ha of shoreline and the technology is available, very economically and sustainably. The PFI has the technology and we want to share that,” said Khonghun, who had trained in China on salt farm operation and salt production.
Salt, he said, has 14,000 uses in food, agriculture, chemical, pharmaceutical and manufacturing industries.
“You need salt production. Self-sufficiency in salt will contribute to the industrialization of the Philippines.
It is a natural food security issue. If we do not have salt, the Philippines is vulnerable to a full supply chain crisis,” Khonghun said.
Coconut fertilizer
The country would need more salt soon because the coconut industry will require 300,000 MT to fertilize 300,000 coconut trees, at 1 kilo a year per tree. “The total requirement would eventually be 850,000 tons, worth $42 million,” he said.
The DENR’s takeover of PFI, 20 years ago, came at a time when the government was finally recognizing the importance of the salt industry, and the need to put it under an agency dedicated to its production and management.
Pangasinan Rep. Ramon Guico III and Ilocos Sur Rep. Deogracias Victor Savellano filed separate resolutions to help the salt industry and its workers.
Savellano filed House Resolution No. 1046 in July 2020 asking various government agencies that provide benefits to fisherfolk to also extend assistance to salt producers, as both are economically linked.
Guico filed HR 1032 asking the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Science and Technology to provide the needed technology upgrade for salt producers in northern Luzon, as they are part of the fisherfolk sector. Guico said he was also filing a bill that would create a center to oversee the salt industry.
“We have the agencies that manage different commodities like sugar, tobacco, carabao, fisheries and others. But we do not have [an] agency for salt, he said.