Interest-free loans to expand salt output

The Government has approved an interest-rate subsidy of 100 per cent for loans for salt producers, which will be effective until the end of the year.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) green-lighted a plan that allows for up to VND25 million in loans to be provided to producers that are using one hectare that have a one-year contract.

Nguyen Tan Khuong, chairman of Dong Hai District People’s Committee in southern Bac Lieu Province, said the State would provide interest-free loans for farmers to buy construction materials so they could build warehouses to store salt before the rainy season, when production declines.

With these warehouses, farmers would be able to store the salt, which would help stablise prices, Khuong said.

The Government also mandated that the Northern Food Corporation buy and store 200,000 tonnes of salt by September 30, of which 20,000 tonnes would come from the northern part of the country and 180,000 would come for the central and south.

The Government also required MARD to thoroughly inspect all of the projects that will build storage spaces. Projects that will potentially be completed by the end of this year, but have been able to secure capital, will be given priority when applying for loans.

According to the deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Nguyen Thanh Bien, the quota for imported salt in 2010 is 260,000 tonnes. To date, Viet Nam has imported 27,165 tonnes of salt.

The head of the Agro-forestry and Fishery Processing and Salt Industry Department, Le Xuan, said the current El Nino has caused the dry season to begin in the southern provinces earlier than usual.

“A lack of rain has put the agriculture production in trouble, but it has been advantageous to salt production,” he said.

In the first five months of this year, 725,000 tonnes of salt were produced, which was almost double the amount that was produced during the same period last year. At the moment, salt prices are deflating. One kilo of salt in the northern provinces range from VND 600 to 1,000 (US$0.03-0.05), which is 40 per cent lower than the prices from last year. More than 300,000 tonnes of salt has not been sold by farmers.

MARD expects that Viet Nam’s total salt output in 2010 will reach 1 million tonnes, which would meet the domestic demand.

Deputy Minister Bien said Viet Nam had to import salt in order to abide by its commitments to the World Trade Organisation. “The salt that we’re importing is high-quality, which is used in the food production industry. This type of salt is not produced in the domestic market,” he said.—VNS

Tags: Vietnam salt, Vietnam salt output