The first-ever locally-fabricated Salt Harvesting Equipment has been officially deployed by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in Occidental Mindoro.

Funded through the Collaborative Research and Development to Leverage Philippine Economy (CRADLE) Program under the Science for Change Program, researchers from the DOST Industrial Technology Development Institute (DOST-ITDI) developed the salt harvester that was specially designed to mechanize the process of crushing, washing, and harvesting of salt even during the rainy season in deep crystallizer saltern.

This was done in partnership with JALD Industries Corporation, and through the support of the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD), the project’s monitoring agency.

According to DOST-PCIEERD, the salt harvester can also shorten the harvesting period from months to a couple of weeks, addressing the issues of salt impurities contamination and economic losses.

The said equipment was developed to address the tedious manual method of crushing, piling, and hauling using rakes, cane baskets, and wheelbarrows for salt harvesting.

It also seeks to improve the quality, productivity, and efficiency of solar salt processing in deep crystallizer salterns.

The technology can be adopted by other solar salt producers practicing deep crystallizer salterns which do not only provide opportunities to the local salt industry but to the local fabrication industry as well.

“This project was borne out of the necessity to create a solution in reducing the time required to produce salt with improved quality. At a time when we are experiencing supply issues, this is how science and technology comes in as a bearer of solutions,” PCIEERD Executive Director Dr. Enrico C. Paringit said.

Paringit also expressed hope that the salt industry players adopt this new technology and help mitigate the challenges that it faces.