Can the Philippines become self-sufficient in salt?

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines wants to wipe out salt imports by 2040 as it plans to be self-sufficient in the commodity in less than two decades through various state interventions and private sector investments.

The Marcos administration has set the goal of achieving self-sufficiency in salt in 15 years under the recently approved Philippine Salt Industry Development Roadmap 2025-2040.

“This blueprint marks not just a policy milestone, but a bold act of reclamation – reviving an industry that once thrived along our sun-drenched shores, now poised to rise again, stronger and more enduring than before,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said.

The creation of the roadmap is mandated by Republic Act 11985 or the Philippine Salt Industry Development Act, which aims to make the country attain self-sufficiency and eventually become a net exporter of salt.

The industry blueprint, a copy of which was obtained by The STAR, showed that the government plans to achieve self-sufficiency through staggered levels.

The country’s salt self-sufficiency level stood at 13 percent in 2022, the roadmap indicated, citing a research article published in the Philippine Journal of Fisheries last year.

The roadmap sets a salt self-sufficiency target of 32 percent by 2029, 70 percent by 2034 and 100 percent by 2040.

This means the country will be producing at least 244,000 metric tons of salt by 2029, 569,130 MT by 2034 and over 850,000 MT at the end of the roadmap.

The baseline salt production was pegged at 114,623 MT, which was recorded in 2022, according to the roadmap.

The country has never achieved self-sufficiency in salt in recent memory, based on the roadmap’s data.

The closest time that the Philippines produced enough salt to meet its entire requirement was between 1980 and 1990 when its self-sufficiency ratio (SSR) peaked at 85 percent.

Since then, the country’s salt SSR has been on a downhill trend especially after local producers, particularly small ones, struggled to iodize their output in compliance with the ASIN Law of 1995.

The entry of cheaper imported salt, which was exempted from the mandatory iodization, made foreign supplies more competitive and lucrative, easing out locally produced salt in the local market.

This made the country more dependent on imported supplies to meet its salt requirement, with import volume peaking at 711,000 MT in 2019.

“By the late 1990s, the only salt available in the Visayas and Mindanao markets was mostly imported salt as Luzon salt producers could no longer supply salt to these markets at a reasonable price,” the roadmap read.

To boost the country’s salt self-sufficiency, the government is looking at achieving seven goals: expanding salt production areas, implementing climate-resilient production practices, boosting post-harvest capabilities, expanding salt value-added products, better food safety compliance, widening market access for producers and empowering salt industry stakeholders.

The roadmap indicated that the government targets to utilize at least half of the total potential area nationwide for salt production in the short term and cover the entire potential area by medium term.

The government has identified 1,581 hectares of potential areas for salt production nationwide with most of which being in Occidental Mindoro (1,000 hectares).

The government plans to develop and promote climate-resilient and innovative salt production nationwide beginning with the establishment of technical demonstration farms.

The adoption of more post-harvest facilities such as dryers, harvesters and iodizing machines, among others will also be a key program of the government to revive the local salt industry, based on the roadmap.

The government plans to establish a database on existing salt post-harvest facilities to determine the current state of machinery and equipment used by salt farmers in the country.