Salt maker shifts focus to exports
Salt maker shifts focus to exports
A major salt processing firm in Laos has shifted its focus to foreign markets after studying the possibility to export its goods.
Veunkham Salt Company Managing Director, Ms Bounthanvy Chounlamany said yesterday that it is adding herbs into salt, hoping the new products will attract customers in foreign markets after learning about the demand for healthy foods.
“The food consumption trend is that people like to eat organic and premium cooking salt therefore we think that if we produce these types of products, we can sell the goods in foreign markets,” she told Vientiane Times on Friday after returning from exhibiting the goods in Seoul last week.
The herbs, which the company adds to the salt, are very unique as they are local products such as ginger, roselle and huttuynia. At present, the company produces five types of premium salt for export.
Ms Bounthanvy said that consumers can use this salt as a cooking ingredient or just add it to hot water, tea and coffee. There is plenty of nutrition contained in the salt as the herbs which are added to the salt are believed to be traditional medicines which can help keep people healthy.
Another attractive feature of this salt product from Veunkham is the packaging of the goods and the design of the pack, which provides basic information on the product.
According to the company manager, the firm is eyeing Japanese, South Korean and Malaysian markets after finding a high consumption demand for the herb salt there. The company has already started exporting this product to Taiwan with a volume of about 20 tonnes a year.
Veunkham Salt Company is one of the se ven salt processing plants in Laos. This company traditionally produces salt for domestic consumption. Last year, it produced about 4,000 tonnes of salt with nearly 100 percent of the comm odity sold on the domestic market.
Ms Bounthanvy said that establishment of the Asean Economic Community, which is scheduled to be launched at the end of this year, inspired her company to shift its focus from the domestic market to foreign ones, which have higher consumption demand.
“We are producing the natural herb salt because we are thinking of what we should produce for the AEC,” she said.
Ms Bounthanvy said that the company was in the process of obtaining a certificate of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), which will enable the company to export its products to international markets, adding that food safety is one essential requirement for a Lao product to enter a foreign market.
She also said that the company is improving its production chai n to meet international standards as part of efforts to obtain the GMP.
Trade officials said that what the Veunkham Salt Company is doing is considered as a good example as it adds more value to the Lao products before exporting them. The government promotes business people to process natural raw materials before export as they bring more income to the country.
