Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– The Bangladesh government has fixed the target of salt production at 1.450 million tons for the current fiscal year (FY), officials said.

The farmers started to grow salt in mid November in Chittagong zone. It takes around 15-20 days to produce salt. The production of salt has reached 22,310 tons until December 19, the state-run Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) said.

Around 40,000 farmers will be involved in salt cultivation in FY’12 against 38,982 farmers of the previous fiscal. Salt production target was fixed 1.39 million tons in FY’11.
 
Salt is mostly produced in Khulna, Satkhira, Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar and the production season continues from November to mid-May.

There are more than 280 salt mills situated throughout the country among which 267 mills have Salt Iodising Plant (SIP) facility provided by the BSCIC.

Around 47,000 families are directly involved and around 2.5 million people depend on the sector.

BBN/SSR/AD-21Dec11-10:08 am (BST)