THE Philippines is an archipelagic country blessed with a very long coastline — all of 36,289 kilometers — in fact the fifth longest coastline in the world. This makes the country very suitable for fish, marine products, and salt production. We have all the space to convert our coastline to produce these commodities, yet we import fish, shrimp, and salt in great quantities every year.
Statistics show that the country imports at least 850,000 metric tons of salt from Australia and China annually. That is 93 percent of the country’s salt requirement.
Salt is an important ingredient in cooking our food, just like garlic, onion and ginger, yet our Departments of Agriculture and Department of Trade and Industry are seemingly content in just importing these commodities when we can develop and enhance their local production.
‘We are confident that slowly but surely, we are on the right track in reviving both the salt and the coconut industries.’
More than half for our salt requirement goes to the kitchen, used in the preparation of dishes and seasonings. But salt has many more uses in the industrial sector: for the manufacture of paper, plastics, as fertilizer for coconut trees, and for use in ice plants, etc.
In the production of salt, we might as well learn from the Vietnamese. Vietnam has only 3,260 kilometers of coastline, yet they can produce the commodity for their local consumption, with surplus for the export market. The Philippines produces a mere 100,000 MT of local salt compared to Vietnam which produces 1.1 million metric tons of salt a year.
It is a whiff of fresh air, therefore, that when the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) needed some 6,940 bags of 50-kilo agricultural grade salt fertilizer for the coconut planting program in Pampanga and Aurora, the Pangasinan Salt Center in Bolinao was able to accommodate the order. This means we do not have to import the coconut fertilizer requirement of the PCA for the two provinces, thus saving our dollars and creating more jobs in these provinces in Central Luzon.
The two provinces are the latest additions to the areas being supplied by the 473-hectare salt farm, located in Barangay Zaragoza, Bolinao town and owned and managed by the provincial government. Assistant Provincial Agriculturist Nestor Batalla said the salt center produced around 6,100 metric tons of salt this year.
“We have started cleaning the salt beds and we will start the production for the new cycle in the first week of November. We are targeting to produce around 8,000 metric tons by next year,” he said, adding that salt produced in Pangasinan is high in sodium chloride and has undergone analysis, passing the requirements of the PCA for coconut fertilization.
The PCA planting and replanting program aims to fully revitalize the coconut industry by planting 100 million trees from 2023 to 2028.
The move to scale up coconut production goes hand-in-hand with the revival of the salt industry as envisioned by the new law, Republic Act 11985 or the Philippine Salt Industry Development Act. Both programs will generate thousands of new jobs, particularly in the countryside and coastal communities.
Signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last March, RA 11985 shall establish a comprehensive roadmap to implement programs, projects and interventions for the development and management, research, processing, utilization, business modernization, and commercialization of the Philippine salt.
We are confident that slowly but surely, we are on the right track in reviving both the salt and the coconut industries.
