Written by: Muhammad Irfan Sadik, Emrul Hasan
Have we ever thought about what goes behind the production of Salt, its production process, and the people involved?
Salt, the commodity we all use and don’t notice until it’s missing. The silent ingredient in almost all of our dishes. It was historically created by boiling seawater in a pot. Most salt-producing regions are in the coastal regions of the country; almost 95% of it was produced in the Greater Chittagong region. In the colonial British period, the Brits almost shut down regional salt production in this area, as they wanted the population to consume salt produced in Britain. Although some people produced salt for their personal consumption and usages and maybe traded nearby. The historic salt march of Mahatma Gandhi drew attention to this draconian and exploitative practice of the Brits. After the British Left, modern solar salt production started in the region in the 1960s. In the 2000’s, the salt production got a boost as usages of plastic, specifically polythene was introduced to the process which helped to control the consistency and the quality of the salt. Till date, this is the most popular process and is commonly used in almost 100% of the salt farms.
Kutubdia, known for its lighthouse established by the British East India Company in 1846 to protect the trade in the shipping routes, is also one of the primary contributing regions in the salt production hub of Greater Chattogram, which collectively produces 90% of the total national salt production. People in Kutubdia have been historically involved in salt production, a legacy running back a hundred years and across multiple generations. Salt production is one of the major sources of livelihood in this region, as it is detached from the mainland, and the geography of the terrain makes it hard to utilize it in many ways that the mainlanders are accustomed to. After the devastating cyclone of 1991, many fields which were used for rice farming became too salinated to harvest rice. During this time, the major boom in salt farming helped the regional people to survive, helping them to avoid the massive challenges of earning a livelihood after that severe natural calamity. The salt production industry has been very integrated into the culture of the Kutubdia’s people, as salt production gives them the means to survive in this remote region, and this resilient industry is appropriate for this coastal region, which suffers from threats of various natural calamities like floods, cyclones, tornadoes and many threats commonly predisposed to the coastal islands.
The total salt production of Bangladesh in 2024 was 24.37 lakh tonnes. But the micro-level salt production is filled with suffering, debt, and exploitation by big companies and local middlemen. Cox’s Bazar alone produces an average of 38,000 metric tonnes of salt everyday. Yet, the government hasn’t taken any steps to secure the livelihood of salt farmers. The cost of getting the land for salt production in the sharecropping method costs around 48 thousand per Kani (forty decimals of land). Machineries, equipment, and workers’ salaries included the total cost of salt production per 40 decimals of land, reaching 1,25,000-1,28,000 taka. On average, 450 taka is the production cost for every mand (40 kgs) of salt. While the farmers are selling per mand for 220 taka only. This results in a loss of 230 taka per mand of salt for the farmers. These farmers had to take loans from the middlemen to produce salt; thus, they are obligated to sell the salt at any rate and settle the dues. In this system, the salt farmers have to sell their salt to the middlemen who have lent them the money. Collecting the salt at 220, the middlemen are selling these salts to the market at 650 taka per mand. While they bear the transportation and related logistics costs, they are pocketing a significant profit while the farmer is not getting his production cost nor getting the right to export by himself, let alone profit. These middlemen also take a 20-taka commission per mand in this trade as the moneylender, on whom the farmer was dependent in order to accumulate capital for the whole production.
However, the big picture of the salt industry is promising, but the grassroots-level salt farmers who tirelessly work to produce this salt are fighting to feed their families. “It is hard for me to even feed my family nowadays, let alone buy clothes and fulfil their other basic necessities. I can now only afford dry fish, and that’s what my family is having continuously in every meal,” said Mohammad Azam, who one of the biggest salt farmers of Kutubdia. Micro-business loans to the salt farmers are vital for them to get out of the clutches of the middlemen who create a monopoly by lending money to farmers to harvest, and small farmers are bound to sell their harvest to these middlemen also known as ‘Dalals’. These middlemen also take commission from per mand salt and also profiting from the market as they’re the only seller to the salt mills. These middlemen have no intention for a fair price to the farmers as all they care about is profit maximization. One of the major demand from grassroots farmers is a ferry to transport easily and sell directly to the salt mills located in various parts of the country. If the government could take initiatives to establish salt mills in the Cox’s Bazar region, the salt farmers would greatly benefit from that. The future of the salt farming lies in the survival of these salt farmers, as if they do not get a fair price for their produce, they might fall into the trap of loans and might end up losing everything they have. And this might discontinue salt farming in our country and force the salt market to be export dependent. So, the question remains, will their exploitation ever end, or will the farmers’ choose a different path instead of uncertain salt?
[Disclaimer: This article is based on primary data, mainly on In-depth Interviews (IDI), Key Informant Interviews (KII) and ground info only.]
Muhammad Irfan Sadik is the founder of a series of research projects called ‘Project Upokul’ and currently studying his Master’s in International Relations at Jahangirnagar University. He can be reached at rajinsadik110@gmail.com.
Emrul Hasan is a versatile young researcher and a bachelor student in Industrial Engineering at Deggendorf Institute of Technology (DIT), Germany. He can be reached at hasan.emrul.eh@gmail.com