Plea to protect salt industry

The Tamil Nadu Foodgrains Merchants Association has appealed to the Food Safety Commissioner, Kumar Jayant, to protect the Tuticorin salt industry by instructing Food Safety and Standards Act officials not to initiate action against salt manufacturers till the standards are revised as per Tamil Nadu’s climatic and environmental conditions.

In a memorandum submitted to the Commissioner, the president of the association, S. P. Jeyapragasam, pointed out that salt producers followed different procedures in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. In Gujarat, salt was produced directly from seawater whereas producers used seawater pumped from borewells in Tamil Nadu. Sodium chloride content in Gujarat salt was 96 per cent and it was 92 per cent in Tuticorin salt. As the Act specified 96 per cent as sodium chloride content in salt, Food Safety and Standards Act officials initiated action against Tuticorin producers for ‘substandard’ salt. Mr. Jeyapragasam said that around 50,000 families were dependent on the Tuticorin salt industry, which was spread over an area of 25,000 acres.

The association also drew the attention of Mr. Jayant to the difficulties faced in processing coriander. Traditionally, traders fumigated coriander using sulphur to remove insects. As a result of this, sulphur content would be high in coriander immediately after fumigation. But coriander powder was used for cooking only after it was pulverised. As officials did not allow the use of sulphur, the coriander trade in Tamil Nadu and Kerala was affected with the entry of the commodity from Maharashtra and Karnataka. It appealed to the Commissioner to allow fumigation of coriander using sulphur till such time an alternative was found for fumigation.