HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Farmers in the Mekong Delta are harvesting the2019-20 salt crop, with the prolonged hot weather providing a bumper harvest,and prices ruling high. 

In Soc Trang province’s Vinh Chau town, farmers are producing salt on a totalarea of 120ha, mostly in Lai Hoa and Vinh Tan communes and Vinh Phuoc ward,according to the town’s Economic Bureau.

Son Thanh Kha, who has a 3ha salt field in Lai Hoa commune, said he hascompleted his first harvest with an output of 50 tonnes.

He expects to complete the second in the next 10 days. 

“If the weather is favourable like at the beginning of the season, farmers willhave more bumper harvests.”

Farmers can produce salt throughout the season depending on weather conditionsand production methods, depending on whether they use traditional methods orusing plastic sheets to cover fields to produce clean salt.

It takes about 10-15 consecutive sunny days for a salt harvest using thetraditional method, while it takes 10-12 days using plastic sheets.

Ben Tre province has 1,150 households who produce salt on a total area of morethan 1,200ha, mostly in Ba Tri and Binh Dai districts, according to its RuralDevelopment Sub-department.

In Ben Tre, traders now buy salt at a price of 40,000-50,000 VND (1.7-2.2 USD)per 45 kilogrammes, which is profitable, according to farmers.

Farmers in Ben Tre started production one month earlier than last year afterthe rainy season ended early.

Vo Tien Si, head of the Ben Tre Rural Development Sub-department, said farmershave harvested nearly 10,000 tonnes of salt so far.

In the delta, salt is made mostly in the coastal provinces of Bac Lieu, Ben Tre,Soc Trang and Tra Vinh.

In Bac Lieu, the largest producer, farmers make salt on a total of 1,670ha,according to its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Nguyen Quoc Vinh, who has been making salt for nearly 20 years in Bac Lieu’s DongHai district, said production using plastic sheets has yielded around 70 tonnesper 1,000sq.m this season and an income of 5 million VND (220 USD).

This is the second straight year of bumper harvests and high prices, he said.

“To save time, we harvest even at night to sell to traders.”

Trinh Hoai Thanh, deputy director of the Bac Lieu Department of Agriculture andRural Development, said yields are 30 percent higher when using plastic sheets.

The method also requires less tending, produces whiter salt and fetches higherprofits, he said.

However, the cost is higher, and farmers need support policies to expand thearea on which the method is used, he added.

Bac Lieu salt is exported to Cambodia, the Republic of Korea and Japan./.