Senators on Sunday welcomed President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s approval of a measure that aims to revive the dying salt industry in the country. 

Marcos signed the Republic Act (RA) 11985 or the Philippine Salt Industry Development Act, on 11 March mandating the appropriate technology and research, and adequate financial, production, marketing, and other support services will be provided to salt farmers to revitalize the salt industry, attain increased production, achieve salt-sufficiency and become a next exporter of salt.

Senator Cynthia Villar, who sponsored the bill, said Marcos’ approval of the RA 11985 will finally allow salt farmers “to breathe life into” their dying livelihood. 

“This is also a 'prayer heard' for the sector's workers and stakeholders who have been appealing to revitalize the salt industry,” she said. 

Villar, who also chairs the Senate Committee Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform, noted that the newly enacted law will provide for all coastal communities nationwide to regain their ability to produce salt.

She likewise stressed that the new law will address the expansion of the current salt farms concentrated in Pangasinan and Mindoro. 

Under the law, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources are “mandated to map out, identify, and designate public lands, including portions of municipal waters, as salt production areas within 60 days from the passage of this Act.”

The public land for salt production shall also be leased for 25 years, renewable for another 25 years, for use as salt farms. 

For this purpose, BFAR shall issue the Salt Production Tenurial Instrument where cooperatives and associations of subsistence and small producers and farmers shall be given preferential treatment.

“We need to meet the growing demand of Filipino households and the additional annual demand for 300,000 metric tons of salt as coconut fertilizer under the 2021 Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund Act,” Villar said. 

The senator also lamented the country’s salt production accounts for only 16.782 percent or 114,000 metric tons of the 683,000 metric tons annual demand.

Based on research by the Fisheries Post-harvest Research and Development Division of the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute, the Philippines heavily relies on salt imports to meet its annual demand despite being archipelagic. 

The Philippines had a thriving salt industry at the height of production in the 1990s, with nearly 85 percent of the country's annual salt requirement being sourced locally, particularly in the provinces of Bulacan, Pangasinan, Occidental Mindoro, and Cavite. 

However, domestic salt production currently falls short of meeting the total demand of 683,000 MT, and the shortage may also jeopardize salt-dependent enterprises such as fish processing, coconut, food, and other industries. 

Thus, Senator Win Gatchalian said revitalizing the Philippine salt industry would lessen the country’s dependence on imported salt. 

Gatchalian, who co-authored the bill, noted its passage would also accelerate the development of the local salt industry as the country aims to become self-sufficient in salt production. 

“This will, in turn, aid in mitigating both short and long-term increases in the prices of this fundamental commodity,” he explained.

“I am proud to have collaborated in shaping policies that will ultimately bolster our country's economic progress,” he added.