Salt production resume in Kampot and Kep provinces

Thanks to favorable weather conditions, salt producers in Kampot and Kep provinces have resumed their production, hoping to harvest at least 100,000 tonnes this year. Bun Baraing, vice president of the Kampot-Kep Salt Association said that salt farmers are back in the field after a spell of sunny weather. Last year, heaving rains kept farmers away from work, forcing the association to sign a deal with China to import 30,000 tonnes of salt to meet domestic demand, he added. Each tonne of Chinese salt cost the association $135, but fetched just $100 in the local market, while locally produced salt sells for about $120, he explained. According to Baraing, the sector is also dealing with a labor shortage, as the traditional workforce move away from rural areas to work in factories or migrating to Thailand to increase their earnings. There are 4,657 ha of land used for harvesting the commodity in Cambodia and 200 farmers working on them. Salt is farmed mostly in the provinces of Kep and Kampot. (Source: Khmer Times)