The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) today expressed support for the Salt Industry Development Act that Congress passed on the third and final reading yesterday. The bill seeks to revitalize the salt industry, attain increased income for salt farmers and salt producers, achieve salt self-sufficiency, and become a net exporter of salt. The said bill also aims to promote and support artisanal salt farming, as well as available non-traditional alternative methods and techniques of salt farming that allow year-round production of salt even under erratic weather patterns.
“As an archipelagic country with a long stretch of shoreline, it is ironic that we are a net importer of salt, with 90% of our salt consumption imported from Australia, China, New Zealand, and Thailand. This measure, if enacted and enforced conscientiously, will help revive the dying domestic salt industry, and can give employment to the rural population, especially fisherfolk.”
Bulacan used to be a major salt-producing province, supplying 45% of the country’s salt requirements. However, the conversion of coastal areas and urban development in the province have decimated the local salt industry, forcing traditional salt makers out of business. Worsening climate change has also affected local salt production as
traditional salt producers use solar evaporation to extract salt in coastal areas.
Likewise, the Philippines’ entry into the GATT-WTO Agreement on Agriculture in 1995, allowed the influx of cheap salt imports.
KMP said that aside from the salt industry, other rural industries such as coconut, sugar, meat processing, dairy products, leather processing, abaca products, clothing and textiles, furniture, bamboo and rattan, fish processing, fruit, spices, and vegetable processing; agricultural by-products processing and seaweeds processing must also undergo genuine development to meet the needs of the people, local industries and the domestic economy as a whole. “The development of major rural industries will provide social capital towards planned and sustained rural development,” according to KMP. ###
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