Cox’s Bazar Correspondent :
The salt producers are frustrated over low price of salt at field level as the middlemen have allegedly been dominating salt trading in the district, sources said.
Despite incurring heavy losses last year, the salt producers in the district were upbeat about profit this time. But the farmers are being deprived of fair prices this season again.
The producers started production of salt a bit earlier this year in order to recoup the losses, although cold wave coupled with drizzle halted the production before preparing the salt beds.
Currently, the salt producers are selling the item at Tk 2 per kg whereas the price is Tk 25 – Tk 30 per kg at retail markets. The farmers said government had fixed the field level price of salt at Taka 4 per kg, but the buyers had not been following the rate.
They cost Tk 100-110 for producing one maund of salt whereas they have to sell at Tk 130-150 per maund to the middlemen with only 10-20 taka profit which is very minimal against their hard labour, farmers said.
A salt producer of Magnama village under Pekua upazila of the district said he has sold per maund of salt at Tk 180 at the beginning of the season, but currently the price has come down to 100 per maund.
“I had to sell salt at low prices to repay the loan with interest taken from the brokers, he added” Rafique Ahmed, another salt producer of Unchiprang village in the upazila informed this correspondent that he started salt production by taking one acre of land as lease for Tk 30,000. But he has incurred a loss of Tk 1, 50000 so far for low price.
The field-level brokers are applying different techniques to reduce the prices of salt for their own profit, he alleged.
President of Cox’s Bazar Salt Farmers’ Welfare Association said at least 55,000 salt farmers of the country have fallen in great despair as they are not getting fair prices of salt. They cannot even fetch the cost of labours and transportation.
He demanded government steps against influx of salt from neighbouring countries-Myanmar and India, in order to save the country’s salt industry.
President of Salt Millers Association Abdul Kader told the newsmen that the country would have been self-sufficient in salt sector if brokers influence and smuggling, influx from neighbouring countries could have been be stopped. Sources in Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) said around 70,000 acres land in the district have been brought under salt cultivation this fiscal.
About 60 thousand farmers of the areas are engaged in salt cultivation, sources said. The BSCIC has set a target for producing 19,96,000 metric tonnes of salt this fiscal against a domestic demand for 15,18,000 MT.
