Cambodian salt fills Vietnamese market while local producers struggle

A salt purchase takes place in the southern province of Bac Lieu. Viet Nam still imports salt for industrial production from neighbouring countries, despite producing 1.2 million tonnes of unprocessed salt per year. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Su

AN GIANG — A shortage of salt on the local market has resulted in a large volume of salt being imported into the country from Cambodia, experts say.
In the past month, traders bought salt at VND900 a kg from Cambodia’ s Kampot province and imported it across the southern border province of An Giang.
Imported salt is then transported along the Vinh Te Canal in An Phu Commune and Tinh Bien town for local sale.
The price has risen to VND4,000 a kg in Bac Lieu Province, the country’s largest salt granary.
Market experts said local salt prices had increased tenfold over last year and reached a record high in the past five years.
Domestic salt falls short of demand
HA NOI — Despite producing 1.2 million tonnes of unprocessed salt, Viet Nam still needs to import 200,000 tonnes for industrial production, the Association of Salt Production in Viet Nam said.The main reason for this is unprocessed salt in the domestic market does not meet quality requirements needed for industry and imported salt is cheaper, the association said. — VNS
The scarcity of salt was expected to continue because of the traditional methods of salt production that result in low yields, experts said.
Compounding the problem are the increasingly dwindling acreage for salt production due to rapid urbanisation, inclement weather and high demand for salt exports, industry insiders say.
Huynh Thi Ngoc Anh, a resident and salt dealer in Tinh Bien town, said that a large amount of salt was being imported from Cambodia.
Ngoc Anh earns a 5 per cent profit on each 50 kg bag of salt, priced at VND48,000 each.
She said she often bought 400 to 500 bags of salt from Cambodia at a time, and usually earned about several million dong a month.
Residents in other businesses are also turning to importing salt from Cambodia.
Nguyen Van Tuc, a longstanding cross-border rice trader who now imports salt for a living, said he could sell an average of 2,000-4,000 bags of salt a day to traders from HCM City and Can Tho and Dong Thap provinces. — VNS