Ministry for putting a stop on licensing salt import

With expectation that the domestic salt supply will meet production and consumption demand, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has asked Ministry of Industry and Trade to stop assigning import quota of 50,000 tons of salt for serving chemical production, the Thoi Bao Kinh Te Vietnam newspaper reported on June 15.
MARD said that in 2011, the country’s salt production area is estimated to be 14,850 hectares, down 2% year on year. Until May 18, the salt output reached 415,000 tons, equaling to only 56% of the same period of 2010.

However, the stored salt volume kept by farmers and some enterprises is around 235,000 tons in addition to the expected harvesting volume in the central and northern regions.

Salt supply in 2011 is forecast to surpass 110,000 tons compared with demand. Hence, the salt import will likely impact prices and consumption negatively.

Salt price in central and northern regions remains fairly low, averaging at 450-700 dong per kilogram while the required price should be 1,000 dong per kilogram.

In the start of 2011, Ministry of Industry and Trade issued Circular 45/2010/TT-BCT assigning the import quota of 100,000 tons of industrial salt and 2,000 tons of refined salt. The circular was enforced from Jan 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011.

Tags: Vietnam salt imports

Posted by VBN on Jun 17 2011. Filed under Agriculture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry