Dasol remains Pangasinan’s top salt producer
PANGASINAN’S top salt producers are the towns of Dasol, Bolinao, Bani, Anda and Alaminos City.
According to the data Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPAg), Dasol produced 24,000 metric tons (MT) of salt from its more than 10,000 banigan (salt beds) located in 13 of its 18 villages, or 37.4 percent of the province’s total production of 64,156.36 MT.
Dasol’s salt farms are located along the Maasin River, one of the rivers cutting through the town that flows to the Dasol Bay and to the West Philippine Sea.
Next to Dasol is the town of Bolinao, which produced 12,240 MT of salt from its salt beds in the villages of Victory, Pilar, and Zaragoza.
But 98 percent (12,000 MT) of the town’s salt production that year came from a 473-hectare salt farm operated by Pacific Farms Inc. in Barangay Zaragoza that stopped production after the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) shut it down in 2021 because its foreshore lease contract had long expired.
Other salt producers in western Pangasinan are Alaminos City (5,208 MT), Bani (4,617 MT), and Anda (3,750 MT).
Infanta town produced about 9,622.8 MT of salt in 2021, but not from salt beds. The salt was produced by boiling leached brine, a salt production method that is also practiced in the towns of Anda, San Fabian, and Mangaldan.
At present, Nestor Batalla, assistant provincial agriculturist said, Pangasinan salt farms’ total area is 1,432.4 hectares, and about 1,034 individuals are engaged in salt production. (PangasinanPIO)
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