Gov't to create a council to improve salt industry and lower salt importation
The Philippine government is creating a council under a newly-signed Salt Industry Development Act that will focus on strengthening the salt industry in the country to reduce the importation that has reached 90 percent.
During the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing, Nazario Briguera, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources spokesperson, said the council that will be composed of different government agencies will be led by the BFAR.
"Under the newly signed law, BFAR was identified as the lead agency. Although under this new law, a Salt Industry Development Council will be created, it is a council that will be composed of different sectors, including the government sector to focus on the establishment of a roadmap to the direction setting when it comes to the salt industry," he said.
"The lead agency is BFAR. But it doesn't mean that it will not coordinate with other agencies, like the DTI, DENR, DOST, DPWH, DOLE... So they are the ones that are going to help us in pushing for the roadmap for us to identify how we can strengthen the salt industry," he added.
Briguera said the Salt Industry Development Act was signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last March 11.
"This new law defines whose agency should lead the creation of a roadmap, that will determine the direction of the government regarding the salt industry, for us to achieve, or lower our dependency on importation," he said.
Briguera admitted that the salt industry in the country was neglected for a long time, but he noted that it still has a big potential because it is surrounded by the sea.
"Yes, the potential of the salt industry in the country is very big because as you said we have a very long shoreline and we are getting our salt from the sea water, so that's how big our potential is," he said.
"The salt industry was neglected for a long time. First of all there is no law before that determines the agency that should handle the industry, while there are other challenges faced by our salt producer, like lack of research, lack of modern technology, lack of capacity and the challenges in the implementation of the law for iodization of salt," he added.
Briguera explained that these challenges "become an hindrance to the small scale" salt producer "because they do not have the capability to iodize, so they have difficulties in terms of marketing." Robina Asido/DMS
