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Salt production in India is expected to increase over 35% to 40 million tonnes per year by 2020.
R S Kashyap, deputy commissioner at the Salt Commissionerate of India said that with a total salt production of over 25 million tonnes, India is the third largest salt producing country after China and USA.
In India, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan contribute to about 96% of the Country’s salt production. Gujarat contributes 75% to the total production, followed by Tamil Nadu (11 %) and Rajasthan (10 %).
About 62% of the total production is from large salt producers, 28% is contributed by small scale producers and rest by medium scale producers.
Most of the salt is produced by private sector only.
India exports surplus production of salt to the tune of about 50 lakh tonnes on an average earning a Foreign Exchange of Rs 617 crore in 2012-13.
g A record export was achieved primarily due to surge of demand from China,” said Kashyap, who told reporters after announcing India Salt Conclave 2014, starting from tomorrow at Chennai
Other major countries importing salt from India are Japan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, South Korea, North Korea, Malaysia, UAE., Vietnam, Quatar and others.
The targeted production will be 40 million tonnes by 2020 with 20 million tonnes for industrial purpose, 7.5 million tonnes for edible purpose, 10 million tonnes for export and 2.5 million tonnes as reserves, he said.
g In view of the industrial salt consumer’s stringent specification requirements, the medium and small scale salt manufacturers are facing difficulties to achieve good quality because of their old lay-out salt works, especially in the states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh,” said Kashyap.
To combat and overcome these issues, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with Salt Commissionerate, Government of India and with the support of Indian Salt Manufacturers Association (ISMA) and Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI) is organising the “India Salt Conclave 2014” on the various aspects of the salt industry in general and quality upgradation, mechanisation and modernisation in particular.
