A deep crisis grips the country’s salt industry, as the price of the essential item has fallen by half at the start of the ongoing harvest season.
Farmers allege that with unsold salt still in stock, the government’s sudden decision to approve new salt imports has caused the market to collapse. They claim that a powerful syndicate of mill owners is exploiting the price drop.
Investigations reveal that while a maund (40 kg) of salt sold for Tk240 as recently as last October, the price has now fallen to Tk120–140 as new salt entered the market. Yet the production cost per maund stands at Tk350–400. As a result, small farmers are drowning in losses and extreme despair.
On 24 November, at Lemshikhali, a coastal area in Kutubdia, farmers held a nearly one-kilometre human chain, a symbolic funeral procession, and scattered salt on the road in protest against the import decision and demanding fair prices for locally produced salt.
Their slogans included: “Stop importing foreign salt!” “Ensure fair prices for salt!” “The government must accept farmers’ demands!”
Some protesters lay down on the road in a symbolic act of desperation. Farmers say their struggle has now become a “life-or-death battle.”
“Salt sells for Tk3 in the field, Tk40 in packets”
Standing beside salt fields, angry farmers expressed their frustration and hopelessness.
After failing to repay debts taken from local lenders (mahajans) over the past two to three years, many farmers did not even start cultivation this season, they said.
“I have heaps of salt piled up in the fields, but I can’t sell them. Production costs are 350–400 taka per maund; buyers offer only 120–140 taka. How are we supposed to survive?” said Mohammad Shahjahan, a marginal salt farmer from Lemshikhali.
Another farmer, Abdu Rahim, said, “Last year’s salt is still lying in the pits. The new harvest has just started coming in, and the price has already dropped by half. We are ruined.”
Farmer Ilias Hossain said in a tone of sharp protest, “Now the price of a kg of salt is only Tk3 — yet the same amount of packaged salt sells for Tk40! What a strange country we live in. What kind of inequality is this?”
“Salt industry on the brink of collapse”
Farmers alleged that mill owners have formed a syndicate to artificially force down salt prices. The new import approval has strengthened that syndicate, they claim.
“It is urgent to break the syndicate of salt mill owners. If imports from other countries aren’t stopped, Bangladesh’s salt industry will be destroyed. Without ensuring fair prices at the field level, this vital industry will collapse. Crime and unemployment will increase in coastal areas,” said Md Akhtar Hossain, chairman of the Lemshikhali Union Parishad in Kutubdia upazila.
Closure of dyeing factories a factor
Mohammad Zafar Iqbal Bhuiyan, Deputy General Manager of the BSCIC Cox’s Bazar office, said, “The main problem lies in the industrial sector. Many factories—especially dyeing factories, which are major consumers of salt—are currently closed. As the demand has fallen, the purchase of locally produced salt has also declined.”
He said whenever new salt enters the market, prices drop temporarily and once the industrial sector becomes active again, prices will naturally rise.
Regarding salt imports, he said, “We have not yet received any official documents regarding the decision to import 100,000 metric tons of salt. The process is still in the initial stage—verifying the list of mills. It will take time before actual approval is granted.”
35,000 farmers yet to enter the fields
Across Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar regions, around 41,000 farmers cultivate salt on nearly 70,000 acres of land every year. But due to fear of not getting fair prices, more than 35,000 farmers have not yet started salt cultivation this season, according to local administration and farmers.
Farmers warn that such a market collapse will cause long-term devastation to the country’s salt production system, small farmers, and the coastal economy.
They have demanded stopping imports and ensure fair prices for the sake of survival of farmers and the industry.
Salt farmers in the district have already threatened to intensify their movement if the situation does not improve.
