Sen. Cynthia Villar said on Tuesday, Sept. 12, that passing the proposed Philippine Salt Industry Development Act is the Senate’s response to the plea for assistance from salt industry stakeholders to revitalize their dying sector.

Voting 22-0, the Senate approved Monday, Sept. 11 on the third and final reading Senate Bill No. 2243 which will breathe new life into the dying salt industry.

Citing a study by the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute, Villar, the principal sponsor of the bill, noted that salt production at present only accounts for 16.78 percent or 114,000 metric tons of the 683,000 metric tons annual demand.

“This implies the need to revitalize the dying salt industry. We need to meet the growing demand of Filipino household and the additional annual demand for 300,000 metric tons of salt as coconut fertilizer under the 2021 Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund Act,” said Villar, Chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform.

Under the bill, a Philippine Salt Industry Development Roadmap, which shall include programs, projects, and interventions for the development and management, research, processing, utilization, modernization, and commercialization of Philippine salt, shall be formulated. It shall also create the 16-member Philippine Salt Industry Development Council, headed by the Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary.

Tariffs collected on imported salt will also be plowed back to the industry with the creation of the Salt Industry Development and Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (SIDCEF).

For 10 years, the SIDCEF shall be earmarked for the: provision of machinery and equipment, including seawater pumps, salt graders, salt harvesters, dump trucks and bagging machines, and salt iodization machines for beneficiaries who are into salt iodization; 50 percent; establishment of salt farm warehouses/storage areas; 40 percent; conduct of extension services; 5 percent; and development of modern salt production and processing technology; 5 percent.

Senate President Juan Miguel “Migz” F. Zubiri before expressing his intent to become one of the bill’s co-authors, congratulated Villar and all coastal communities who will be able to produce salt again once the bill becomes a law.

For his part, Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva expressed his whole-hearted support and gratitude to colleagues for prioritizing one of his pet bills in the 19th Congress.

The bill also provides that the iodization of salt that is not intended for human consumption or local food production, as well as artisanal salt, shall be rendered optional in the country. Importers, traders, and distributors of imported food-grade salt that will undertake fortification shall comply with the iodization standards set by the Department of Health.

SBN 2243 also addresses the need to expand the current salt farms concentrated in Pangasinan and Mindoro. The bill tasks the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and BFAR to map out, identify, and designate public lands, including portions of municipal waters, as salt production areas within 60 days from the passage of this act.

Public land for salt production shall also be leased for a 25-year period, renewable for another 25 years, for use as salt farms. For this purpose, BFAR shall issue the Salt Production Tenurial Instrument where cooperatives and associations of subsistence and small producers and farmers shall be given preferential treatment.