Vietnam's salt production has jumped by 16.4 percent this year to 1.18million tonnes, reported the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment.

Favourable weather and an increase in the areadevoted to salt production are the reasons for the increase, accordingto the ministry's Department of Processing and Trade forAgro-Forestry-Fisheries Products and Salt Production.

The area has gone up by 625ha this year to 14,814ha.

But farmers are faced with low salt prices.

LeCanh Nhan of Diem Van village, Tuy Phuoc district, the central provinceof Binh Dinh, said, "This year there was a lot of sunshine, and my11.3ha salt field yielded more than 2,000 tonnes, two times that of lastyear."

But prices have declined dramatically, he said.

In November Nhan sold his salt for 800-900 VND a kilogramme compared with 1,450 VND a year earlier.

The Central Salt and Trading Joint Stock Company blamed this on not only on the bumper harvest but also low quality.

Most of the salt is bought by traders, who routinely push prices down during harvest season.

Thesalt production season has finished Binh Dinh with an output of around30,000 tonnes, 80 percent more than last year, according to theprovince's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Butof its 214ha of salt fields, only 13.6ha used canvas sheets on fields toproduce cleaner salt while the rest used traditional methods.

Thedepartment has petitioned the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment to adopt policies to buy salt to stabilise prices andproviding farmers soft loans to buy canvas sheets to produce cleanersalt.-VNA