Did you know that every year Vietnam has to import about 400,000 to 600,000 tons of salt worth hundreds of millions of US dollars to meet the domestic demand of about 1.5 to 1.6 million tons of salt? This initially sounds very surprising to many people. We have enough conditions to produce salt. So why do we have to import salt from Australia, India, China, or even from Laos, a landlocked country?

And even more surprisingly, not only Vietnam, many coastal countries like Japan, South Korea, and Thailand also have to import salt. Currently, Vietnam has several provinces producing salt stretching from North to South. These are coastal areas in the North, such as Nam Dinh, which has now become part of Ninh Binh, or Thai Binh, which is now Hưng Yên, and then to the Central and Southern regions. The total area for salt production is about 11,000 hectares with more than 21,000 people dedicated to this profession day and night. Those who make salt are called salt farmers, and salt fields are referred to as salt fields.

In Vietnam, salt is produced in three main ways, and each method has its own story. The first method is traditional. This is the oldest way of making salt, mainly in the northern provinces. Salt farmers take sand soaked in seawater, dry it in the sun, and then extract the salt. It sounds simple but is extremely labor-intensive. Sand must be carried, dried repeatedly, and the yield is low. Now it is only done in a few places because many people believe it is too outdated. The second method is concentrated brine evaporation, which is more modern and mainly appears in the Central region. Seawater is channeled into large fields, dried in the sun for salt to crystallize into white layers. This method yields higher but requires significant investment to create salt fields, pump water, and of course, it also depends on the weather.

And finally, a method called dispersed brine evaporation is very popular, accounting for about 60% of the country's salt production area. Each household will make a few small fields, drying and harvesting on their own. The advantage is that it is easy to do and does not require much investment. But the downside is that the quality of the salt is uneven and difficult to sell to large factories. That is about the method of salt production. As for salt classification, salt in Vietnam is divided into four types. Indeed, when I was doing this story, I also just learned that salt has its own stories and is as complex as that.

The first type is raw salt. Raw salt is used for food processing, for salting fish, or for making fish sauce. This is the most common type and has the lowest value. The second type is refined salt. Refined salt is the type that every household has, cleaner than raw salt, used for seasoning in dishes. When you go to the supermarket, you will see bags of salt sold, labeled as refined salt.

The third type is industrial salt. Industrial salt is used in the chemical industries, such as producing caustic soda, chlorine, or soda. This type requires very high purity, and Vietnam is currently lacking this type. The fourth and final type is tentatively called premium salt, used in medicine, such as saline, used in cosmetics like bath salts, or special products. It sounds diverse, but the biggest problem is that the salt produced in Vietnam is mainly raw salt, which is used for making fish sauce and food processing, or at most refined salt, while industrial salt and high-quality salts are not produced much in Vietnam, and that is the first reason we have to import salt.

But why can't we produce more? Why does a country with a long coastline and a thousand-year tradition of salt making like Vietnam have to buy salt from abroad?

Did you know? Vietnamese salt, although salty and rich, only achieves a purity of about 95%. But the chemical industries producing caustic soda, chlorine, or soda need very pure salt with a purity of over 99%. Similarly, the healthcare and cosmetics industries also need almost absolutely clean salt to make saline or medicines. For example, chemical companies in Vietnam need to import hundreds of thousands of tons of industrial salt every year because domestic salt does not meet the standards. They will almost import 100% from Australia or India. Our natural sea salt does not meet the standards because it often contains sand, mud, or other minerals.

To purify it, companies will have to invest in machinery and chemicals, but the cost is higher than simply buying or importing. So instead of using Vietnamese salt, which requires extensive filtering, wasting time and money, it is faster to import salt from abroad. Not to mention that salt production in Vietnam is still fragmented. A salt farmer usually only works on a few hundred square meters of salt fields, not enough to meet large orders from factories. The weather is also unpredictable; continuous rainstorms, high humidity, or insufficient sunlight all lead to poor salt harvests. On average, the whole country only produces a few hundred thousand tons of salt each year, while the actual demand is double that. Therefore, importing salt is the quickest way to make up for the shortfall.

And do you know what salt Vietnam is importing?

In fact, Vietnam hardly imports sea salt but imports rock salt. Rock salt is found in countries like Australia, Germany, or even Laos. Laos, a landlocked country, still has salt. Extracting rock salt is very cheap, costing about 1/20 of sea salt. But what is rock salt?

Rock salt is salt that is mined from underground, hence the name rock salt. It is similar to how we mine minerals, completely different from sea salt that Vietnamese salt farmers dry. Rock salt is not made from seawater but is salt in mineral form, accumulated over millions of years in rock mines or deep soil layers. Its special feature is that it is much purer than sea salt. Vietnam does not have rock salt.

So how is rock salt formed? Millions of years ago, there were coastal areas or lakes that became isolated, the water evaporated, leaving behind pure salt crystallized in thick layers, and over time, soil and rock covered them, turning them into salt mines deep underground. Famous places with rock salt include Australia with its large mines, Germany with its ancient salt mines, Poland with its picturesque salt mines, and the Netherlands also has salt mines. Surprisingly, Laos, a country without a coastline, has huge rock salt mines in Savannakhet province sufficient to export to both Vietnam and Thailand.

Is rock salt edible?

The answer is of course yes. After being crushed and filtered, rock salt can completely become table salt, food salt, and cosmetic salt. But because it is too pure, it is often used more for industrial purposes. Many people prefer sea salt for its natural salty taste containing minerals like magnesium and calcium, while rock salt is milder in taste. For example, we have the famous Himalayan pink salt, which is also rock salt mined not only for eating but also for making salt lamps, bath salts, and Himalayan pink salt is very popular in the spa industry. Rock salt has many advantages over sea salt. Because even in places with super salty seawater, such as the Dead Sea, sea salt still struggles to compete with rock salt, especially in terms of price.

Salt from Australia, India, or China is not only cheaper but also produced on a very large scale, making it easy to transport by sea. Vietnamese businesses, especially in the industrial sectors, will have to prioritize purchasing imported salt rather than investing in domestic salt, which seems strange. But that is the rule of the global market, and Vietnamese people also have to choose what is best for their lives, right? Vietnamese salt farmers, with more than 21,000 people, can only work for about 6 months a year. Their average income is very low, much lower than working as laborers or shrimp farming.

So many people have left the profession, switching to other jobs to make a living. Moreover, climate change, such as erratic rains and storms, also makes the salt profession increasingly precarious, with not enough workers and not enough land. Vietnamese salt is becoming increasingly difficult to meet demand and hard to compete with international salt. And in the world, Vietnam is not the only country with a coastline that still has to import salt. This is a very normal story in many countries, and each country has its own reasons. For example, Japan. Japan, the land of sushi, has a long coastline, but the traditional sea salt industry is almost extinct due to high costs.

Japan imports salt from Australia for chemical production, while their domestic salt is only used for culinary or ceremonial purposes. Interestingly, Japan even buys raw salt from Vietnam for processing, showing that Vietnam also has potential in a very specific segment. Or South Korea, a country famous for kimchi, still has to import industrial salt from abroad because domestic production is insufficient. India is the third-largest salt producer in the world, but India still has to import pure industrial salt for pharmaceuticals. Their sea salt mainly serves the domestic market and is exported to some countries like Bangladesh or Nepal.

Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, all in Southeast Asia, have long coastlines but still have to import salt because rock salt from countries like Australia or Germany is much cheaper than sea salt. A similar problem to Vietnam. Even Laos, a landlocked country, is a rock salt exporter thanks to effective rock salt mining. This shows that in the modern world, rock salt is dominating the industrial market. Meanwhile, sea salt is only strong in the food, cultural, or very specific product segments.