Salt Priced Down Sharply in South Vietnam
Prices of salt have sharply dropped in southern provinces, upsetting local farmers because they will loss of hundreds of billions of dong.
Salt price dropped from VND2,200-VND2,400/kilo to only VND1,200-VND1,400/kilo over the past 15 days.
Meanwhile, unseasonal rains in late December 2008 and March 2009 destroyed more than 4,000 hectares of salt in Mekong Delta provinces, causing loss of tens of billion VND.
Vietnam now has more than 13,300 hectares of salt, including 7,000 hectares in southern region, mostly in Bac Lieu, Ben Tre, Tra Vinh and Soc Trang. The region expected to harvest 350,000 tons of salt this year.
The expansion by 1,000 hectares of salt area, but not high salt quality and productivity, is blamed for the decrease of price.
The rich supply of salt, which is partly backed by the flood of low priced and imported salt, also made the price fall. (Vinanet)
Vietnamese
