Salt exports from Thoothukudi port have gone up this fiscal year, reversing the trend of decline over the last four fiscal years.
Fall in price of salt triggered by excess production had helped increase exports, B. Prabakaran John, a Thoothukudi-based exporter, told The Hindu here on Wednesday.
Poor monsoon rains last year led to unhindered production of salt. High production led to accumulation of manufactured salt, causing a glut in the market and fall in its price.
When the market demand for salt grew, one tonne of salt was priced at ₹800 and above, but now the price had fallen to ₹500 and even below.
During previous years, traders and exporters relied on Gujarat, which constitutes 65% – 75% of the total production in India. Gujarat became the priority market to fill the gap in supply and demand, and the quality of salt and its cost effectiveness from the State too appealed to the traders.
Earlier, the market players here tended to procure quality salt from Gujarat at lesser cost and catered to the needs of importers. Of late, plummeting price here has come in handy for them.
The falling price of the commodity has almost stopped shipments of salt from Gujarat.
Mr. John said new markets – Angola and South Africa – had been tapped to ship salt from Thoothukudi with the logistic support of V.O. Chidambaranar Port.
He said to boost salt exports further the Centre should increase duty drawback to some extent. While seafood exporters had been enjoying more such benefits, salt exporters were excluded, Mr. John said.
Salt production touched 21 lakh tonnes in 2016-17, but the rain intervened in 2015-16 and the production was at 13 lakh tonnes, A.R.A.S. Dhanabalan, secretary, Thoothukudi Small-Scale Salt Manufacturers’ Association.
Sources said till February 2017 during the last fiscal, 48,120 tonnes of salt was exported to other countries, mostly to Malaysia, as against the total export of 36,918 tonnes recorded in 2015-16.
Source: The Hindu