THERE is something fundamentally disconcerting about an archipelagic country surrounded by seawater having to depend heavily on other countries for salt. The Philippines possesses the coastline, the climate, the labor and generations of salt-making knowledge. What has been missing is sustained investment capable of turning those natural advantages into a strong domestic industry.
Northern Iloilo is now showing, on a modest scale, what can be done.
The Department of Agriculture – Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR) Region 6 recently turned over more than P1.5 million worth of salt production and storage facilities to fisherfolk organizations in Ajuy and Carles towns. More important than the amount is what the investment attempts to solve: the practical problems that have kept small salt producers vulnerable to weather, losses and exhausting manual work.
In Culasi, Ajuy, the Punta Dolorosa Fisherfolks Association received more than P800,000 worth of salt evaporating and cooking facilities capable of producing 300 kilograms per batch. Significantly, the setup can allow production even during the rainy season, when traditional solar evaporation becomes difficult or impossible. In Barbosa, Carles, the Asosasyon sang mga Asindero sa Carles received a storage facility worth more than P700,000 that can accommodate 40 metric tons of salt, protecting production from humidity and rainfall.
These may appear to be small interventions. But they point to the larger answer to the country’s salt problem: produce more of what we need here, and give Filipino producers the technology, infrastructure and markets necessary to compete.
Iloilo already has something substantial on which to build. BFAR reported that in 2024 the province produced 404.57 metric tons of salt from only 32.73 hectares of salt beds, providing alternative livelihood to more than 400 fisherfolk. It described Iloilo as one of the country’s leading salt-producing areas.
That should make Iloilo more than a beneficiary of scattered livelihood projects. It should make the province a serious participant in the national rebuilding of the salt industry.
The country is, in fact, beginning to move in the right direction. BFAR reported that Philippine artisanal, solar and cooking salt production reached 199,293 metric tons from January to June 2026, describing the increase as progress toward stronger domestic production and reduced import dependence. The Philippine Salt Industry Development Plan likewise seeks to modernize production, reduce import dependency and develop a competitive, self-sustaining industry.
But plans, equipment turnovers and encouraging production figures must ultimately translate into something more durable.
Government should identify suitable salt-producing areas, improve production technologies, build common facilities, provide financing and technical assistance, strengthen quality and food-safety standards, and-crucially-connect producers to dependable markets. Producing more salt accomplishes little if small producers cannot sell it profitably. Recent BFAR efforts to directly connect producers with institutional and commercial buyers recognize precisely this missing link.
Local governments have an important role here. In Iloilo, municipalities with viable coastal areas should determine whether salt production can be expanded without compromising environmental protection and competing coastal uses. Existing producers should be organized and strengthened, while younger residents should see salt-making not as an antiquated livelihood practiced by an aging generation but as an enterprise capable of becoming productive, technologically improved and profitable.
The P1.5-million intervention in Ajuy and Carles therefore should not be viewed merely as another government turnover ceremony. It should be treated as a seed investment.
Replicate what works. Expand production. Develop markets. Help local salt makers meet commercial standards. Protect artisanal traditions where they have cultural and economic value. And measure success not by how much equipment government distributes, but by how much additional Philippine salt Filipino communities eventually produce and sell.
Iloilo’s salt makers are showing that the industry can be revived when producers are given the right tools. The challenge now is to turn isolated pockets of assistance into sustained industrial policy.
