Middlemen, mill owners reap locally produced salt’s profits

Middlemen and mill owners reap the profits of locally manufactured salt leaving the poor farmers in the lurch.
As the manufacturers lack the strength to control the salt industry middlemen and mill owners reap the profits by reselling the harvest for up to five times their buying price, complained salt farmers in the  Cox’s Bazaar coast.
They said middlemen and mill owners pay between Tk four  to six for each kg of salt they buy from the farmers but sell it to consumers at Tk 30 after refining it.
Salt farmers said that they lack the strength to bargain with the wealthy middlemen and mill owners.
‘The middlemen and mill owners usually stop buying salt from us if we demand the just price,’ said a Moheskhali farmer.
Salt farmer Abdul Kader told New Age that it costs around Tk five to produce each kg of salt in his village, Lemshikhali in  Kutubdia.
He said that at the outset of season in December, salt farmers in the area earned some profit by selling each kg salt for  Tk eight.
Now, he said, the farmers were getting Tk five, barely the production cost.
The government shows no interest ensure fair price to the producers, said dejected salt farmer Iskander from the same area.
Abdur Rahim, a salt miner at Rajakhali in the coastal upazila Pekua said this year’s hot weather would facilitate a bumper harvest of salt.
Now, he said, it takes barely two days, down from five days, to dry sea water in sunlight to get salt.
‘If the weather conditions continue like this, it would take one day to dry sea water and get salt,’ he expects.
But, being too poor, he said, ‘We are scared of suffering losses if the prices fall.
Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation director Nurul Islam said that the government was formulating salt policy to provide benefits to salt farmers as well as the consumers.
BSCIC general manager for extension Momtaz Maqsud said this year’s salt production target had been set at 18 lakh tonnes against the demand of 16.58 lakh tonnes.
She said that 60,000 acres of costal land in Cox’s Bazaar and Banskhali in Chittagong were under use for salt production in the current dry season.
Ruling Awami League MP Asheq Ullah Rafiq who represents Cox’s Bazaar-2 constituency comprising Moheshkhali and Kutubdia upazilas, both offshore islands, said that the salt farmers in his area earned some profits at the beginning of the current season as the government banned  salt imports.
He said the huge gap in salt prices between the farmers’ and the consumers’ levels cannot be   justified by the authorities.

News Courtesy:www.newagebd.net