Credit for salt makers

Tightening salt imports and providing soft loans to poor households for salt making are among the measures proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to ease the difficulties faced by the industry.

The Social Policy Bank will lend salt making units VND40 million-50 million (US$2,000 – $2,500) per hectare for 36 months if the proposals are approved by the Government.

The ministry is also calling for prioritising investment in infrastructure in salt making areas and increasing the use of technology in production.

The Government is set to continue developing salt fields in the central region, especially in Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, and Khanh Hoa Provinces, to increase their productivity and quality.

The ministry said attention should be paid to developing facilities to store mined salt.

There are more than 15,200ha of salt fields in the country from which output is expected to reach 1.1 million tonnes this year, including 300,000 tonnes for industrial use.

In the first six months the country imported 230,000 tonnes of common salt for more than US$11 million. — VNS

Tags: Vietnam salt