Slow death

Iodization didn’t kill the local salt industry; it was merely one of the nails in the coffin.

The sector had simply been taken for granted and died a slow death over several decades. This much I gleaned from Gerard Khonghun, president of the Philippine Association of Salt Industry Networks or PhilASIN, a group of salt producers and non-government organizations working to revive the sector.

Back in the early 1960s, Khonghun said, the Philippines was 97 percent self-sufficient in salt, whether for food or for the other uses for sodium chloride, a.k.a. salt. The self-sufficiency, he said, ended in the 1980s.

From self-sufficiency, how did we get to where we are now, importing 93 percent of national salt requirements? By 2030, PhilASIN estimates that this could rise to 96 percent, or about 1.3 million metric tons, mostly imported from Australia and the rest from China and Thailand.

Facing “The Chiefs” on Cignal TV’s One News last week, Khonghun provided a glimpse of the complex problems besetting domestic salt production.

The population boomed even as areas allotted to salt production dwindled with land conversion, from 5,000 hectares in the 1960s to the current 2,100, drastically reducing salt production to the current 60,000 metric tons. The annual salt demand currently stands at 983,000 MT, which will require about 18,888 hectares of salt beds or only about 0.4 percent of the country’s coastlines.

Uses for salt also increased, to the current 14,000, Khonghun explained. Salt is used not only to flavor and preserve food but also for, among others, the manufacture of baking soda, medical intravenous infusions as well as water chlorination and potable water treatment. The boom in the bottled water business significantly increased salt demand.

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Instead of moving to meet the growing demand, salt production fell. Khonghun noted that voluminous requirements for operating salt beds deterred new investments or expansion in the industry.

Salt beds need access to the sea. But merely obtaining the environmental clearance for such access can take years, Khonghun said.

He noted that salt production is one of the most ecologically friendly economic activities, so there shouldn’t be so much hassle in securing an environmental clearance. The requirement is apart from the usual layers of red tape in operating any business in this country.

“The producers I’ve talked to, they want to make salt,” he said, but their problem is ease of doing business.

The iodization requirement under the ASIN law – the 1995 Act for Salt Iodization Nationwide or Republic Act 8172 – became an additional burden especially for marginal salt producers.

Khonghun says 50 kilos of salt require about P15 worth of iodine. Considering the narrow profit margins in this commodity, however, that amount cannot be sneezed at. Iodization in commercial quantities also requires investment in a machine that marginal salt farmers cannot afford.

PhilASIN recognizes the merits of salt iodization for public health. All that the group wants is an exemption for certain types of salt, such as gourmet varieties and those meant for export.

Khonghun said the Department of Trade and Industry could identify to the Food and Drug Administration the products that deserve exemption, to be written into an amendment of the ASIN Law.

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Because of the iodization requirement, producers of the unique artisanal asin tibuok in Bohol cannot sell their product locally. Some of them at least have learned to sell online or overseas, where one “dinosaur egg” is priced from P1,500 to P1,900.

Producing asin tibuok takes several months of painstaking labor. Why go to all that trouble? Khonghun guesses that this is because the main asin tibuok-producing area of Albuquerque town is not a “Type 1” or premium environment for salt production, so local residents used the resources available and developed the unique method.

While asin tibuok cannot be sold openly, however, there are non-iodized gourmet salts that are easily found in supermarket shelves, particularly pink Himalayan.

In an archipelago of 7,100 islands, with the 36,000 kilometers of shoreline the longest in the world, Khonghun explained that not all areas are created equal when it comes to the requirements for salt production.

The so-called “Type 1” areas – with long dry season and low rainfall – are mostly in Northern and Central Luzon (Pangasinan is a top producer) as well as Southern Tagalog. Today only Pangasinan and Occidental Mindoro are producing salt, says Khonghun.

Contrast our situation with Vietnam, which produces 1.18 million MT of salt annually in 12,000 hectares of salt beds. Khonghun noted that Vietnam identified salt early on as a key agricultural commodity. It has a five-year salt development program for rural farmers.

He emphasizes the importance of government support for the industry particularly at the local level, through mayors and barangay officials.

“A local government that’s pro-business can do a lot to revive the salt industry,” he said.

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Despite the problems besetting the industry, there are still people interested in salt production. PhilASIN, Khonghun said, has been approached for example by people who want to convert their idle fishponds into salt beds.

He allays fears that salt beds can destroy the environment, pointing out that in other countries, salt producing regions have even become wildlife sanctuaries with mangrove forests.

“The salt industry I think is one of the most environmentally friendly industries… Once salt farms are constructed, they become part of the ecosystem,” Khonghun stressed. “We understand that we need to protect the environment.”

Salt producing areas can also become top tourist destinations.

This is the case with the saltmarshes in France’s Camargue region, where “salt shepherds” harvest by hand the prized fleur de sel (flower of salt) like gold from the glittering water turned pink by microscopic shrimp. The saltmarshes are home to rare and protected bird species, including 35 percent of the pink flamingoes in Europe.

I have several containers of fleur de sel that I bought from various gourmet shops in Paris. Maybe my Tondo-bred palate isn’t discerning enough, but I think our sea salt from Pangasinan can compete.

But first, we need to revive our salt industry. More than having to import galunggong, it’s a national shame that with our extensive shoreline in our tropical climate, we have to import 93 percent of our salt.

It doesn’t have to be this way. As Gerard Khonghun pointed out, “We can make our own salt; we can be self-sufficient.”