Unlike previous years, salt production is yet to take off in Tuticorin this year. Normally, production would commence either in the first week or in the middle of February every year. But prolonged rains until December-end after the early onset of northeast monsoon last year caused delay in production. It is expected to resume in March, G. Grahadurai, president, Tuticorin Small Scale Salt Manufacturers’ Association, told The Hindu here on Saturday.
Market conditions would be favourable to manufacturers only if quality of salt is good. To meet the required quality standards, manufacturers have to wait for two more months for production. A.R.A.S. Dhanabalan, secretary of the association, said it was essential that the produced salt had 96 per cent of sodium chloride. Since the salt industry was lacking skilled workforce, it was a challenging task to produce quality salt. M.S.A. Peter Jebaraj, president, Gandhi-Irwin Salt Manufacturers’ Association, said now gypsum deposited in salt pans was being removed. Only when the deposited gypsum was removed from the muddy soil on salt beds, heat would be reflected and the bed would become conducive to production. Normally, the manufacturers incurred an expenditure of Rs.20,000 to Rs.25,000 per acre of salt pan.
S. Petchimuthu, a salt pan owner, said the delay in production would also not affect the manufacturers, who felt the market was still weak.
