The Hindu : Front Page : Vedaranyam salt producers in a fix

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 12, 2007
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Vedaranyam salt producers in a fix

K. Subramanian

HARSH CONDITIONS: A salt pan at Vedaranyam.

NAGAPATTINAM: Salt manufacturers and merchants of Vedaranyam in the district are in a fix as the price of common edible salt does not fetch a remunerative price; it has nose dived to 50 per cent below the cost of production. The price is now quoted at Rs.10 per quintal against Rs.20 incurred for production.

Salt is being produced on 9,500 acres along the Vedaranyam coast — 7,000 acres are in the hands of two corporates and the rest owned by about 700 individual licensees. The production of common salt came down this year from the normal production of 3.50 lakh tonnes owing to adverse seasonal conditions, coupled with high cost of production, including wages, preparing pans etc. Salt manufacturers, who used to get a yield of 50 tonnes an acre, now get only 25 tonnes.

More than 20,000 workers, both men and women, are engaged in salt production between January and June; they get wages ranging from Rs.85 to Rs.120 a day.

The common salt from Vedaranyam is sent to several parts of the country, especially to Karnataka. The soda ash plant at Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh and caustic soda unit at Manali near Chennai are the major buyers. A. Vedaratnam, president of Vedaranyam Salt Manufacturers' and Merchants' Association, saidthat the salt industry would flourish and the problems of salt producers solved if soda ash and caustic soda plants were established in Vedaranyam.

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