Govt working out plans to modernize TN salt pans

Chennai

In a bid to enhance the quality of salt production in the state, the Salt Commisionerate along with Confederation of Indian Industry will be working out a strategy to modernize the salt pans in the state.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, deputy salt commissioner R S Kashyap said that due to industrial salt consumer’s stringent specification requirements, the medium and small scale salt manufacturers in the state are facing difficulties to achieve good quality because of their old lay-out salt works.

He said the India Salt Conclave 2014, which will be opened by Sudarsana Nathchiappan, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry on Saturday, would discuss about quality up-gradation, mechanization and modernization of salt pans in Tamil Nadu and other states.

He highlighted how Gujarat has enhanced it salt quality through mechanization. Interestingly, he also highlighted that salt production in the medium and small salt manufacturing units in the state have been hit due to shortage of labour.

“The plan is to make these units go in for modernization,” said Kashyap.

Stating that India is expected to produce 40 million tones of salt by 2020, Kashyap said India, with a total salt production of over 25 million tonnes, is the third largest salt producing country after China and United States. It exports 5 million tonnes of salt to Malaysia, North Korea, Sri lanka and other parts of the world.

In India, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan contribute to about 96 per cent of the country’s salt production, he stated.

 He also ruled out that salt production has been hit due to shortage of land. “We have 6.1 lakh acres of land across the country and salt is produced in only 60,000 acres of land,” said Kashyap.

He also said that the government is contemplating to fortify salt with iron.

About 62 per cent of the total salt production is from large salt producers, 28pc is contributed by small scale producers and rest by medium scale producers. Most of the salt is produced by private sector only.

India exports surplus production of salt to the tune of about 50 lakh tonnes on an average earning a Foreign Exchange of Rs 617 Crore during 2012-13. A record export was achieved primarily due to surge of demand from China.