ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka did not relax the import ban on salt imposed on the people by the state due to requests from industries, after an initial shipment, Trade Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe said as the country is in the grip of a salt crisis.
That continued rains which helped boost electricity generation but were going to reduce salt harvests were known from last year and plans were made to import industrial salt.
“We first imported about 12,500 tonnes of salt,” Minister Samarasinghe told reporters in Colombo Monday.
“The salt producers association told us not to bring any more salt after we brought the 12,000 tonnes.
The salterns are in Hambantota, Puttalam and Mantai, he said.
Sri Lanka’s import controls on salt were inherited by the current administration from earlier governments.
Politicians and Mercantilist bureaucrats had controlled imports so that domestic producer lobbies could extract high profits from consumers by restricting the supply of essential foods ranging from rice to maize and other pulses.
Some in Sri Lanka also believe in the ideology of autarky which emerged in Europe after World War I, undermining the principles of division of labour, comparative advantages and peaceful relations among nations.
Economists have pointed out that from around November 2004 Sri Lanka’s previous export oriented open economy has been progressively rolled back with import licensing, duties, para tariffs to favour state owned or other business, leading to rising costs and blocking export diversification.
“They expected to get a harvest in March, and then in May,” Minister Samarasinghe explained.
“But in May also production has broken down due to rain.”
For industrial use 30,000 metric tonnes will be brought through the Industries Ministry.
“That salt will begin to arrive in Sri Lanka from tomorrow,” Minister Samarasinghe said. “It looks like that is also not going to be enough.
“Hambantota Lanka Salt expected a harvest of 100,000 salt. But they think they will only be able to get 60,000 tonnes this year even with maximum effort. So there will be a shortfall.
“We informed the importers that those who present BLs (Bills of Lading) can bring salt till next June 10.
“We think about 40,000 to 50,000 metric tonnes will arrive within the next 20 days. We have been informed that the first 100 containers will arrive in the coming Wednesday.”
Sri Lanka’s monthly consumption of salt for households and industries was around 15,000 metric tonnes, he said.
In a good year Sri Lanka produced about 200,000 metric tonnes of salt, he said.
Sri Lanka’s media carried interviews with shopkeepers who said they had not seen a crisis in salt like this in their entire business operations running back three decades or more.
Sri Lanka also ran out of red rice in December also for the first, after price controls were imposed on rice amid an import ban, triggering black markets and widespread shortages.
Officials eventually blamed the problem on statistics.
However, this time there were no price controls and salt. Salt is available at higher prices in many shops, though some shops are experiencing stockouts from time to time. (Colombo/May19/2025)
