Salt production in Tuticorin has fallen in the last two years by 25 per cent to 11 lakh tonnes from 15 lakh tonnes.
The Tuticorin producers make salt at a cost of Rs 3,500 a tonne while their competitors in Gujarat manage to do so at Rs 2,000. Steep electricity costs in Tamil Nadu is cited as one reason for this difference in cost.
Further, production, which was spread over 10 months in a year, has now fallen to three months and the number of people employed has come down to 60,000 from three lakh, just five years ago.
Data from the Tuticorin port reveal that salt export in 2007-08 fell by 80 per cent to 8,986 tonnes from 46,403 tonnes in 2006-07. The situation becomes more alarming when one compares the export to that in 2003, 1.80 lakh tonnes. In 2002, it was 3.17 lakh tonnes.
The Tuticorin salt industry, which contributed 25 per cent of the country's total production until five years ago, has been badly hit by high production cost, climate change and shortage of labour.
According to Michael Motha, managing director, Sahayamatha Salterns, the quality of salt produced in Tuticorin has also dipped.
While many salt producers in Gujarat are companies, owning more than 1,000 acres, their counterparts in Tuticorin can boast of only a handful of producers who can match this scale. Motha said that 50 per cent of the salt sector in Tuticorin is unorganised.
Large export orders ranging between 1 lakh and 2 lakh tonnes are executed by single firms in Gujarat, while in Tuticorin, such orders have to be executed by a pool of producers.
C Narean Dharmaraj, partner, Brilliant Salt Refinery, said that high production costs was due to high power tariffs and transportation costs.
He said the salt producers pay as much as Rs 1,00,000 a month for power for a 100-acre pan, while in Gujarat, the same amount is paid for a salt pan of 2,000 acres. Poor infrastructure was adding insult to injury.
