Thanbyu Zayat - salt production owners in Mon State are apprehensive they will have to sell their products to the government at a price set by it.

According to a salt field owner from Panga of Thanbyu Zayat, the SPDC authorities met salt producers when Maj-Gen Tha Aye visited Mon State last month.  The meeting on the production of sun-dried salt and iodized salt was held in Moulmein when the SPDC invited salt entrepreneurs from Thaton, Thanbyu Zayat and Ye Townships. Maj-Gen Tha Aye of the Ministry of Defence later inspected Set Se salt fields during his trip to Thanbyu Zayat and Ye townships.

The source said that the SPDC will provide loan to producers to the tune of 100,000 Kyat per acre of salt field with 2 percent monthly interest. They in turn must sell back to the government at a fixed price. The SPDC will allow salt field owners to buy diesel (gasoline) at 1 gallon per 1 ton of salt.

Normally, there are two prices of salt; set up by the government and the general market.  The price of a Viss of salt (1.6 kilograms) is about 300 Kyats in the local market and the price set by the government is about 15 Kyats.  The SPDC government has not been involved in salt production by local farmers in the past except those run by the government salt farms.

The price of salt tripled when Burma was hit by Cyclone Nargis, which destroyed salt-producing areas as well as rice fields. The price of salt in Mon State has gone up from 50 kyats per Viss to 300 kyats.  More than 1,000 acres (405 hectares) of state-owned salt fields and 23,430 acres (9,482 hectares) of privately owned salt fields were destroyed by the cyclone.

Salt is mainly produced in the Irrawaddy delta and also in southern Mon and northwestern Rakhine state.

As the production cost is only about 35 Kyat per Viss, salt field owners worry they will lose 20 Kyat for every Viss if they sell to the SPDC at the price set.