Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Fortunato de la Peña recently made a two-day trip to Occidental Mindoro, taking the time to meet local government officials and salt farmers in the municipality of San Jose to express his utmost support for the province’s goal of moving towards the development and sustainability of the local salt industry.
According to a report published by Pacific Farms, Inc. about salt production in the Philippines, the salt-making industry was once a vibrant industry in the country. In 1990, provinces like Bulacan, Pangasinan, Occidental Mindoro, and Cavite could supply almost 85% of the country’s annual salt requirement.
However, the local salt industry has since been crippled by the country’s vulnerability to climate change. Large producers from Las Piñas, Cavite, and Bulacan were forced to close down their salt farms, or convert their areas into other profitable ventures such as fishponds and residential or commercial properties.
Dwindling local salt production naturally gave rise to more salt importation. Now, only 20% of the country’s salt is locally produced, while the remaining 80% is imported from other big salt-producing countries like Australia and China.
LOCAL SALT PRODUCTION
Occidental Mindoro is surrounded by saltwater, making it one of the biggest salt-producing provinces in the country. At the height of its production in 1990, it boasted of producing and supplying about 60,000 metric tons (MT) of 338,000 MT or 18% of the country’s annual salt requirement. Today, while Occidental Mindoro still supplies salt to neighboring provinces in Southern Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, only 12% of the national salt requirement or almost 75,000 MT of 590,000 MT comes from the province.
While the potential of the salt industry is huge because of the universal need for it, what ultimately doomed it is the seasonal pattern change due to climate change and salt producers’ reliance on age-old production methods. These two factors combined badly affected salt farms and led to the continuous decline of the industry and the country’s dependence on more imports in order to keep up with local demands.
Esta historia es de la edición July 2017 de Agriculture.
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