Vietnam has decided to temporally stop
granting salt import quotas for enterprises amid decreases in the
global and domestic salt prices.
The decision was
announced by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoT), the Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Finance at a
press briefing on March 9.
This means the suspension of quota allocation for about 90,000 tonnes of salt out of this year’s quota of 260,000 tonnes.
This is seen as a temporary solution to deal with the sharp decrease of domestic salt price.
The world salt prices are also dropping to about 30-35 USD per tonne
while salt prices in the southern and central Vietnam reduce to
350,000-1million VND (18-52 USD) per tonne and the price of industrial
salt stands at 600,000-750,000 VND (31.5-39.4 USD) per tonne.
The country’s annual salt output is expected to reach over one million
tonne this year, basically meeting domestic demands.
However, salt import will continue as part of the road map Vietnam has
committed to the World Trade Organisation, according to the MoT.
Vietnam mainly imports high-quality salt serving several processing
industries. In 2009, the country imported 230,000 tonnes of salt./.