By Faiza Tehseen ISLAMABAD, Nov 05 (INP-WealthPK): Pakistan is treasured with vast natural salt deposits. Pakistan is not only bestowed with multiple types of rock salt but its coastline is another source of valuable sea salt. Salt plays a vital role in human history in keeping up life activities and trade functions. Pakistan’s rock salt, especially Himalayan pink salt (having 84 trace minerals), is mined from the second largest salt range in the world stretched from Kalabagh to Jhelum in Punjab. The purity level of Pakistan’s rock salt goes up to 99 percent with minimum impurities having four types i.e., pink solid crystals, white solid crystals, soft lumps and soft crystalline lumps. Maldon salt (sea salt or solar salt/Celtic), and lake salt are available of excellent quality in Pakistan. Currently, a quantity of 3,000 tons of salt is extracted from lakes in Pakistan daily which reaches nearly an average of 900,000 tons per annum. Pakistan’s salt reserves are estimated at around 10 billion tonnes with 6.68 billion tonnes in the ranges of Khewra, which produces 350,000 tonnes annually. Pakistan is ranked 20th among the salt exporting countries by producing only 1.9 million tonnes. No kitchen, industrial, sanitary or health unit in the world is complete without salt. There are many types of Gourmet salts i.e., rock salt, sea salt, regular table salt and Himalayan pink salt. Pakistan is producing different varieties of ground salt for cuisine e.g., Himalayan black salt, table salt, double fortified salt with iron and iodine or with fluoride and iodine, iodised salt, black Himalayan salt, ice cream or kosher salt, finest sea salt melting flakes and special dainty among salts “Fleur de sel” or “flower of salts” in both smoked and non-smoked forms etc. For industrial purposes, Pakistan produces salt for pharmaceutical, de-icing, cattle licking, textile industry, tanneries (flossy salt), food preservation (nitrate salt), extra pure AR Grade, oil refineries, oil drilling grade salt, sheep casing grade salt, water softening grade salt, detergent, soap, glycerine, cosmetics industry etc. According to the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA), the consistent Commodity Description and Coding System (referred to as HS Codes) designated for the trade of salt products is classified under the HS Code category 25. The brief description of sub-categories falling under salt products includes the following: Table1: Salt products classification   Source: Trade map http://www.pakistanembassy.no/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Salt-Sector-of-Pakistan-TradeAnalysis.pdf According to Pakistan’s official categorised trade commodity code, salt and related items are entitled with HS code “2501”. The export title of commodity group 2501 is named “salt (including table salt and denatured salt) and pure sodium chloride, whether or not in aqueous solution or containing added anti-caking or free-flowing agents; sea water” exported from Pakistan worth US$59 million in 2020. Sales of commodity group 2501 from Pakistan went up by 20 percent compared to 2019. The cumulative exports of commodity group 2501 from Pakistan went up by US$10.1 million in 2020, while they were recorded as $49 million in 2019. The export commodity group 2501 shared 0.268 percent of total Pakistani exports. Cumulative merchandise exports from Pakistan totalled US$22billion in 2020. The share of commodity group 2501 of total Pakistani exports increased by 0.059 percent as compared with the total worth 0.208 percent in 2019 and Pakistan earned $23 billion in cumulative exports. Pakistan | Imports and Exports | World | Salt, pure sodium chloride, seawater | Value (US$) and Value Growth, YoY (%) | 2009 - 2020 Source:  https://trendeconomy.com/data/h2/Pakistan/2501 Top export destinations of commodity group 2501 from Pakistan in 2020

No.	Country	Share in %	Share worth (US $)	No.	Country	Share In %	Share worth (US $)
1	USA	24 %	14.6 million	6	China	4.84%	2.88 million
2	UK	8.19%	4.88 million	7	Australia	4.56%	2.72 million
3	Germany	6.79%	4.05 million	8	Malaysia	3.23%	1.93 million
4	UAE	6.19%	3.69 million	9	Russia	2.5%	1.49 million
5	Brazil	5.43%	3.24 million	10	Italy	2.19%	1.3 million

The share of the world’s largest exporters accounts for almost 42 percent of the global total supply of salt products in 2019 of which Pakistan managed to grab only 2 percent share. Source: Trade map http://www.pakistanembassy.no/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Salt-Sector-of-Pakistan-TradeAnalysis.pdf In 2018, Pakistan recorded its highest export regarding salt products worth $52.0 million, but it declined in 2019 by 4.6 percent worth $50 million. However, overall export value witnessed growth at a CAGR of 18.1 percent over the last five years period. Source: Trade map http://www.pakistanembassy.no/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Salt-Sector-of-Pakistan-TradeAnalysis.pdf Share of Pakistan Top-5 Import Partners of Salt Products in 2019 Source: Trade map http://www.pakistanembassy.no/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Salt-Sector-of-Pakistan-TradeAnalysis.pdf China’s salt import demand is about 30 percent of total global demand although China itself is among the top exporters of salt. China imports a huge quantity of salt to re-export towards the US and other European countries for de-icing and industrial purposes. India exports a considerable quantity to China but Indian salt reservations have impurities and require a high cost of refining. It is high time for Pakistan to provide premium salt products (naturally consisting of 99 percent halite) and try to export them to its iron friend China. By adopting tactful and appropriate policies regarding the export of salt and salt-related products, Pakistan can play a major role in the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and other international markets. Pakistan’s great variety of salt production needs a remarkable change in salt export policy (SEP) to regularise the country’s salt trade and branding mechanism to earn competitive prices in the international trade market. Proper policies to uplift salt industry will open doors for revenue generation and forex gains, and a lot of job opportunities will also be created.