Ample buffer stocks of salt: No need for panic buying

‘Salterns not affected by X-Press Pearl debris’

by Suresh Perera

Sri Lanka has ample buffer stocks of salt to meet the local demand for the next one and a half years, industry players assured, while allaying fears of an imminent shortage following concerns over toxic chemicals from the fire-stricken X-Press Pearl feeder vessel seeping into salterns in the southern and north western parts of the country.

People clamored to stock up on salt over the past week as word spread that this basic household ingredient will be in short supply as salterns have been contaminated resulting in a drop in production.

Customers are lapping up stocks of salt, a delivery service operator said. “One of them wanted 20 packets included in his order”.

“As everybody is asking for salt, we decided to restrict supplies to two packets per customer”, he noted.

Dismissing the fears as “unfounded”, industry officials clarified that salt is an ingredient produced in excess of market demand in Sri Lanka and available buffer stocks alone put together will be sufficient until mid 2023.

Apart from the country’s four major producers of salt – Lanka Salt Limited, Puttalam Salt Limited, Raigam Wayamba Salterns PLC and the government-owned Matai/Elephant Pass Salt Limited – there are also many other salterns run by private organizations.

Sri Lanka’s annual demand for salt is 160,000MT (120,000MT for domestic and 40,000MT for industrial use), while the combined output is 255,000MT, which translates into an excess production of 95,000MT. Salt is harvested largely in the southern, north western, northern and eastern parts of the country where there’s relatively less rainfall.

“In the event of incessant showers, which hampers production, we open the deep tanks to supplement stocks to ensure that supplies keep moving to the marketplace”, says Sunimal Ariyasena, General Manager of Puttalam Salt Limited, one of the major salt producers in the country.

With a depth of one and a half feet, these tanks are generally opened every three years to augment existing stocks when necessary, he explained.

Asked whether salterns have been affected by the debris from the vessel that went up in flames, as claimed in some quarters, he replied, “there was no threat of contamination as the plastic pellets (from the ship) were floating in the sea and were swept to the shore”.

The production of salt is a long drawn, chemical-free process, where no virus, bacteria or fish can survive due to the high salinity concentration in salterns, Ariyasena continued. “It’s a safe product for consumption”.

He assured that there’s enough and more buffer stocks of salt and even if there’s a shortfall due to packeting frequencies (with a one year ‘expiry date’), the process can always be ramped up to meet the demand.

There was a time salt was imported from India by traders due to the low procurement cost. However, this was subsequently banned as Sri Lanka achieved self-sufficiency.