Salt industry in Cox’s Bazar back to life

The government move to ban edible salt import is yielding fruit, giving fair prices to salt producers in the district. After counting losses for years, several thousand salt farmers of Cox's Bazar are now happy seeing profits for their production.

Kamal Hossain, a salt producer from 16 Jainya Ghona of Maheshkhali's Kalarmarchhara, said, "I sold white salt (unrefined) at Tk 350 per maund last week. Excluding all expenses, my profit has been Tk 100/120 per maund."

Anwar Pasha Chowdhury, president of the Salt Farmers' Association, said, "We hope the scope of salt production will increase this year. The number of salt farmers has already increased since they are getting fair prices."

Cox's Bazar is the largest salt producing region in the country. Around 70,000 marginal farmers are now producing salt in some 64,000 acres of land, according to estimation. The salt producers are mainly from Teknaf, Maheshkhali, Eidgaon, Cox's Bazar Sadar, Pekua, Chakaria and Kutubdia coast.

The officials of Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) said the demand for table salt has been fixed at 23.56 million tonnes this year, which could be met by domestic production.

Nurul Kabir, president of the Salt Mill Owners' Association, said, "If salt producers can earn well, they will produce more salt."

The price of salt has started falling as soon as there is no salt production in the field. Due to the syndicate, the price at the field level has come down by around Tk 350. But the price of 80 kg sack of salt was Tk 800 If this trend continues, the domestic salt industry will be destroyed. Farmers will be beaten in the field. Therefore, the farmers have sought the direct intervention of the Prime Minister to save this promising sector of the country. Leaders of Cox's Bazar Salt Farmers and Traders Struggle Council gave details at a press conference at Cox's Bazar Press Club recently.

In a written statement at the press conference, Cox's Bazar Salt Farmers and Traders Struggle Council Coordinator Advocate Shaheed Ullah said that multiple syndicates are conspiring to make the country dependent on foreign salt by discouraging farmers from cultivating salt. If this conspiracy is not stopped at this moment, the domestic salt industry will reach the brink of destruction. Cox's Bazar and some parts of Banshkhali and about 56 thousand 280 acres of land, at least 55 thousand salt farmers are involved in salt cultivation. In addition, more than 70 percent of the people make a living by trading in salt. As a result, if the domestic salt industry is destroyed, thousands of people who have no other occupation will become unemployed.

At a time when domestic salt farmers have been able to produce large quantities of salt this season by working hard and relying on the promise of the Prime Minister, a few unscrupulous mill owners are conspiring to reduce the price of salt at the field level but to increase the price of the same salt when they are planning to sell that to major salt refining companies. They want the salt farmers to be discouraged and leave the salt field after failing to meet the cost of production. At that time, the mill owners wanted to implement a conspiracy to stop the domestic salt production completely and make the country import dependent on foreign salt. In a written statement at the press conference, it was further stated that despite the huge salt reserves in the country, the dishonest mill owners' syndicate created an artificial salt crisis and put pressure on various quarters of the government by raising false information about the current salt crisis. The conspiracy of unscrupulous traders to import salt was foiled when the decision was taken unanimously on the basis of information provided by BSIC after taking the views of consumers, salt farmers and traders.