SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique - Fifteen of Antique's 18 municipalities have been pinpointed as ideal sites for salt production.

Antique Provincial Board Member Rony Molina, who sponsored a resolution to revive the salt production industry in the province, said in an interview Wednesday that the 15 municipalities situated along the sea coast are ideal sites for salt production where residents used to engage in salt-making.

"Salt production, like in the coastal barangays of San Jose de Buenavista, need to be revived so that we could increase our production and help solve the country's sad state," Molina said.

He said in his resolution that "it is quite ironic for the Philippines to import salt, considering that the Philippines has the fifth longest shoreline in the world."

Identified as ideal for salt production are the coastal towns of Anini-y, Belison, Bugasong, Barbaza, Caluya, Culasi, Hamtic, Laua-an, Libertad, Pandan, Patnongon, San Jose de Buenavista, Sebaste, Tibiao, and Tobias Fornier.

"With the recent development and focus on the salt industry, Antique should plan ahead and be among the first province in the country to use and be the solution to the call for the revitalization of the salt industry," Molina said in the resolution.

Office of the Provincial Agriculture senior aqua-culturist Allette Gayatin, in a separate interview, urged the local government units of the 15 coastal municipalities in the province to provide salt-making sites and inputs for salt-makers to increase their production.

Based on their record, the province has produced 11.6 metric tons of salt during the January to June peak season last year from the salt-producing towns of Tibiao, Belison, and Patnongon, she said. (PNA)