Small-scale salt farmers in Occidental Mindoro and Antique are getting a boost in their production with assistance from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), an agency under the Department of Agriculture.
For Occidental Mindoro, the BFAR-Mimaropa Regional office is working to upskill small-scale salt processors with the goal of enhancing their productivity and entrepreneurial knowhow.
For Antique, the BFAR-Western Visayas office has initially provided various type of equipment to salt producers from the municipalities of Tibiao, Laua-an, Bugasong, Patnongon and Belison. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will also provide shared service facilities (SSFs) for iodized salt production in Antique.
Jason Advincula, a post-harvest technical staff member at BFAR-Mimaropa, said they target to position Occidental Mindoro as the “Salt Capital of the Philippines.”
Advincula said it is BFAR’s intention to teach salt farmers about the modern processes for gathering and processing salt from the sea, enabling them to significantly grow their production capabilities.
A total of 180 salt farmers from the towns of San Jose and Magsaysay in Occidental Mindoro recently underwent capability building training, including using solar energy for salt production.
The seminar titled “Capability Training on Salt Industry Project Development" was conducted by the bureau’s Fisheries Production and Support Services Division (FPSSD)-Fisheries Post Harvest and Marketing Services Section (FPHMS).
“There were speakers on various subject matters related to salt processing… but also about the business aspect of salt production. Representatives of some large cooperatives of salt farmers shared their marketing insights with their small-scale counterparts,” Advincula said in Filipino.
BFAR-Mimaropa’s higher objective is for salt farmers in San Jose and Magsaysay to also spread the knowledge imparted to them to their counterparts across the region, helping expand the local salt-processing industry.
According to the Department of Science and Technology, Occidental Mindoro is one of the biggest salt-producing provinces in the country as it is surrounded by saltwater.
At the height of its production in the 1990s, it boasted of producing and supplying about 18 percent of the country’s annual salt requirement. Occidental Mindoro still supplies salt to its neighboring areas in Southern Luzon, as well as Visayas and Mindanao, but only accounts for almost 75,000 metric tons (MT) or 12 percent of the national salt requirement of 590,000 MT.
Antique’s potential
In Antique, BFAR-Western Visayas said the province has 15 coastal municipalities identified as ideal for salt production.
“Since 2022 to now, there are already 105 salt producers assisted by the BFAR,” BFAR-Western Visayas Fisheries Post Harvest and Marketing Section officer-in-charge Sheryll Aguirre said.
BFAR-Western Visayas started assisting salt farmers in Antique by providing 45 salt producers from the municipalities of Tibiao, Laua-an, Bugasong, Patnongon and Belison with polyethylene plastic, water pumps, suction hoses, and pails, among others.
“With the distribution of the inputs in 2022, the salt producers in the five towns were able to produce 34 metric tons of salt,” she said.
This year, BFAR delivered inputs to the local government units (LGUs) of Pandan, Sebaste, Barbaza, Laua-an, Patnongon and Tobias Fornier, with beneficiaries comprising 20 individuals and four associations engaged in salt production.
Aside from these coastal towns, other areas identified as ideal for salt production are Anini-y, Caluya, Culasi, Hamtic, Libertad, and San Jose de Buenavista.
For its part, the DTI will provide P4-million worth of SSFs for iodized salt production in Antique.
“Procurement of the equipment for the SSF is now ongoing at the DTI Regional Office 6 (Western Visayas) for the four LGUs ,” DTI-Antique Director Mutya Eusores said.
She identified the towns of Belison, Patnongon, Bugasong, and Laua-an as cooperators to provide the needed processing center or shed house, capitalization, and labor.
The SSF components include a salinometer, a device that measures the salinity of a solution; furnace; evaporation vat; cooling trough; settling tank; hose; and water pump.
