The Senate has approved on the third and final reading a bill that will revive the dying salt industry in the country.
The Senate Bill 2243 or the Philippine Salt Industry Development Act that seeks to strengthen and revitalize the salt industry in the country, gained unanimous votes from the lawmakers in the upper chamber in a plenary session on Monday.
After the chamber's approval of the bill, Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva thanked his colleagues for "prioritizing this very important measure."
Senator Cynthia Villar, who chairs the Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform and principal sponsor of SBN2243, said the passage of the bill will serve as the Senate's response to the salt stakeholders' plea for assistance in revamping the "dying sector."
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri hopes that the measure will help coastal communities be able to produce salt once enacted into law.
SB 2243 mandates the need to formulate and establish a Philippine Salt Industry Development Roadmap, including but not limited to programs, projects, and interventions for the development and management, research, processing, utilization, business modernization, and commercialization of Philippine salt.
The bill also mandates the creation of a 16-member Philippine Salt Industry Development Council, headed by the Department of Agriculture Secretary, and tasked to ensure the unified and integrated implementation of the salt roadmap.
Tariffs collected on imported salt will also be plowed back into the industry with the creation of the Salt Industry Development and Competitiveness Enhancement Fund.
For 10 years, the SIDCEF shall be earmarked 50 percent funding for the provision of machinery and equipment, including seawater pumps, salt graders, salt harvesters, dump trucks and bagging machines, and salt iodization machines for beneficiaries who are into salt ionization.
The 40 percent for the establishment of salt farm warehouses/storage areas; and five percent, respectively, for the conduct of extension services; as well as the development of modern salt production and processing technology.
The bill also provides that the iodization of salt that is not intended for human consumption or local food production, as well as artisanal salt, shall be rendered optional in the country.
Importers, traders, and distributors of imported food-grade salt that will undertake fortification shall comply with the iodization standards set by the Department of Health.
SB 2243 is seen to address the need to expand the current salt farms concentrated in Pangasinan and Mindoro.
Pursuant to the measure, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, its attached agency, the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority, as well as the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources are also tasked to map out and identify.
It shall designate public lands, including portions of municipal waters, as salt production areas, including portions of municipal waters, as salt production areas within 60 days from the passage of this act.
Public land for salt production shall also be leased for a 25-year period, 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.
Citing a study by the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute, Villar noted that, presently, salt production only accounts for 16.78 percent or 114,000 metric tons of the 683,000 metric tons annual demand.
"This implies the need to revitalize the dying salt industry. 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.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier said that his administration is working to modernize the country's salt industry and improve salt production.