Africa-Press – Tanzania. RAW salt producers in Lindi and Mtwara now have reasons to smile after the Neel Salt Industry assured them of a ready market for their unrefined salt.
Along the coast of the two regions salt is harvested from seawater using solar evaporation technique.
Neel Salt Managing Director Ahmed Al Rawadh made the assurance of buying the raw salt from the producers recently during their meeting held in Lindi.
The meeting was convened following claims from miners that their salt amounting to 250,000 tonnes was lying idle due to lack of market.
Mr Rawadh said since the establishment of the factory it has been prioritising buying the raw salt from producers in the regions.
“Our industry is ready to buy all salt from those producers, any producer who has raw salt should bring to us,” he told them.
He said his factory has the capacity of refining 800 tonnes of raw salt per day.
“I have already directed my subordinates that whenever producers from these regions come to the industry should be served immediately,” he said.
In the meantime, he offered a free opportunity to producers to go to the factory for training in the demonstration farm so that they could improve their activities.
Salt from small-scale producers has large crystal size and often includes impurities that darken the colour of the product.
Lindi Regional Mineral Officer Idd Msikozi said he was saddened after learning that the producers stored large amount of raw salt without presenting the data on harvested product to the authorities.
He, therefore, directed all salt miners to fill a special form for mining salt to enable the Mining Commission to have monthly statistics of salt mining in the region.
