ILOCOS SALT INDUSTRY GETS BOOST FROM GOVERNMENT
ALAMINOS CITY—The salt industry in the Ilocos region will finally get the support of the government after the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) has committed to boost its production and support its workers.
While sprawling salt farms thrive in the region, especially in Pangasinan province, no government agency oversees the industry.
This changed after Rep. Ramon Guico III of Pangasinan’s Fifth district filed in July last year House Resolution No. 1032 that sought the inclusion of salt producers in the list of the country’s fisherfolk sector, entitling them to receive government assistance.
Postharvest aid
In December 2020, the region’s salt-making stakeholders submitted a proposal to the Department of Agriculture and was given a P10-million grant for training, equipment and other facilities, said BFAR Ilocos director Rosario Segundina Gaerlan.
Mea Baldonado, BFAR’s officer in charge of postharvest in the region, said the salt makers would receive storage facilities
and other postharvest materials that would improve the quality of their product, as well as training on the proper handling of salt.
She said most of the salt makers do not have a warehouse to store harvested salt and they directly dump on the sides of or between salt beds, sometimes covered with canvas, used sack or woven bamboo mats.
While many coastal areas in the country are engaged in salt
production, Guico said local salt makers produce only about 7 percent of the country’s total salt consumption.
Clean, high-quality
Guico said the country relies on importation for the remaining 93 percent “when at some point, salt farming was a thriving industry in the country that it was almost—if not 100-percent—self-sufficient when it comes to salt.”
The town of Dasol in Pangasinan
is known for producing clean and high-quality solar or rock salt, which is called “barara” and is used for industries.
If combined with the salt produced in the other Pangasinan towns of Bolinao and Bani and Alaminos City, the province can produce an average of 74,765 metric tons annually, which is among the highest salt productions by a province in the country, said Guico.
“There is a need to provide the much-needed assistance to the salt makers to improve the productivity and reclaim the lost glory in self-sufficiency,” Guico said.
Just a small space
Westly Rosario, former BFAR research center chief, cited a salt production system based on solar technology using raw seawater dried on foodgrade or high-density polyethylene plastic liner.
He said the system could produce clean salt every seven days.
“You don’t need hectares of land or ponds to go into the business of salt making, just a small space where to put the 2-by-15-meter salt beds lined with the plastic sheets,” he said during a meeting with municipal agriculture officers last week.