The Hon. (Dr.) Nalinda Jayatissa
On behalf of the Minister of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Co-operative Development, he tabled a reply on Sri Lanka’s salt requirement, production sources, producers, and storage capacity. The reply stated that annual demand is about 180,000 MT, normally met through local salterns in areas including Hambantota, Puttalam, Elephant Pass, Mannar and Trincomalee, with storage capacity sufficient for more than a year and harvests generally adequate under normal weather. It also noted that imports rose from 1,282 MT in 2024 to 142,549.3 MT up to 10 September 2025 due to adverse weather and heavy rainfall disrupting production in late 2024.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, on behalf of the Minister of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Co-operative Development, I table the reply.
¶ 02 (a) (i) Annual salt requirement is approximately 180,000 MT (130,000 MT for household consumption; 50,000 MT for industry).
¶ 03 (ii) Sourced from salterns in Hambantota, Puttalam, Elephant Pass (Aalimankada), Mannar and Trincomalee.
¶ 04 (iii) Producers:
¶ 05 Government: - National Salt Company - Lanka Salt Company
¶ 06 Private: - Puttalam Salt Ltd. - Raigam Wayamba Salterns PLC - Raigam Eastern Salt Company (Pvt) Ltd - Southern Salt Company (Pvt) Ltd - Puttalam Salt Producers’ Welfare Society - Other small and medium salterns – Puttalam
¶ 07 (iv) Highest production: Hambantota, Puttalam, Trincomalee, Jaffna and Mannar.
¶ 08 (v) After harvest, salt is stored on open platforms at each saltern; each has capacity adequate for more than one year’s requirement.
¶ 09 (vi) Storage capacity and sufficiency period (Industry and Enterprise Development Ministry reports): - State capacity: 133,000 MT (56%) - Private capacity: 105,000 MT (44%) Harvest can be stored for about three years; typically 75–80% of a full harvest is achieved annually, sufficient for domestic needs in normal weather.
¶ 10 (b) (i) Yes.
¶ 11 (ii) As per Sri Lanka Customs: - 2024.01.01–2024.12.31: 1,282.0 MT imported - 2025.01.01–2025.09.10: 142,549.3 MT imported
¶ 12 (iii) Adverse weather in late 2024 (heavy rainfall in producing regions) disrupted production.
¶ 13 (c) Not applicable.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Thursday, 25 September 2025 ·No. 1759483897051145 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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Cite as: The Hon. (Dr.) Nalinda Jayatissa. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 25 September 2025. No. 1759483897051145. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/20092