Salt prices are ten times higher than before Cyclone Nargis, report sources in Mon and Karen States. Almost twenty-five thousand acres of salt fields were destroyed by the cyclone in Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta area during early May 2008.
According to a salt field owner in Panga village, Thanpyuzayart Township, prior to Nargis one viss of top quality salt purchased at the salt fields fetched 90 kyat. In October, the same amount of top-quality salt is selling for 800 kyat. Medium and low quality salt prices have also increased, from 70 and 60 kyat per viss to 600 and 500 kyat respectively. A viss is a unit used in Burma to measure weight, equivalent to 1.6 kilograms.
Salt prices in markets have seen an even steeper increase, the salt field owner said. Where one viss of top quality salt once cost 200 kyat, it now sells for nearly 1,000. A resident of Mudon Township reported an even higher price, saying that a 1/10th viss bag currently costs 200 kyat. The price in Mudon is up from 50 to 100 kyat per small bag, depending on quality.
A trader Myawaddy, in Karen State on the Thai-Burma border, reports that salt produced in Burma has been seen les and less. “At Myawaddy, after Nargis less salt from Burma arrived. So now mostly people use Thai salt,” the source told IMNA. A 1/10th viss bag now costs 250 kyat in Myawaddy market, the trader said, and added that taxes on salt imported from Thailand have also doubled, from 3,500 kyat per fifty viss bag to 6,000.
According to the salt field owner in Panga, salt from Mon State is typically sold in Pegu and Rangoon Divisions, as well as some parts of upper Burma. Mon State salt is seeing wider distribution this year, he said, and is being sold on the normally salt self-sufficient delta.
Key salt producing villages in Mon State include Set Kyon village, Thaton Township, Panga and Karoat-pi villages in Thanpyuzart Township and Palaiki village in Ye Township. Mon State does not approach the delta area in terms of salt quantities produced. The source in Panga said that last year his 22-acre farm produced only 600 tons of salt because of heavy rains. This year he said he hopes to produce closer to 1,000 tons, weather permitting.
According to a post-Nargis joint report by the United Nations, Association of South East Asian Nations and Burma’s military government, Nargis destroyed at least 80% of salt fields in the delta and kills most of its workforce. Salt fields are by design located in areas most vulnerable to the sea surge that accompanied the cyclone. The fields are on the lowest possible ground, where seawater can be easily routed and left to evaporate, leaving salt.
According to the Joint Report, Nargis destroyed 23,458 acres of salt fields in Myaungmya, Pyapon, Laputta and Ngapudaw townships of Irrawaddy Division. The cyclone was also timed for maximum damage, and the government controlled New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported at least 24,214 tons of raw salt, stockpiled just after the end of the January to May harvest season, were destroyed.
Worse still, a significant percentage of the salt industry’s 20,000 workers were killed, ensuring that productivity will low in the coming harvest season as the industry struggles to both replace equipment and train hundreds of novices at a time.
The staggeringly high salt prices will have serious knock-on effects. Salt is the key ingredient in dried fish, fish paste and fish sauce, which will likely become more expensive. All three foodstuffs are staples in a typical Burmese diet, and are a particularly important source of protein for lower income demographics.
