Mr Peter Mac Manu, Chairman of the Advisory Board of the President's Special Initiative (PSI) On Salt, at the weekend said the Initiative is designed to enhance Ghana's export capacity in salt and to make the industry internationally competitive.

He was speaking on "The Importance of Salt In The Development Of Ghana" at the 14th Annual conference of the Ghana Chemical Society. Mr. Manu, who is also the Western and Central Regional Chairman of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), said the initiative is to address constraints facing the industry to achieve these targets.

He said land acquisition problems, obsolete technology, lack of capital, weak production infrastructure, poor production methods and technical know-how have been identified as some of the major issues confronting the industry.

Mr Manu said Ghana's potential for the commercial production of salt is estimated at over 2.5 million metric tons per annum. He said the present production is around 150,000 metric tons against a world output of some 250 million metric tons.

Mr Manu said the local consumption of salt is estimated at 80,000 metric tons per annum and the remaining exported mainly to ECOWAS countries. He said Ghana has an advantage over neighbouring countries in the production of salt because of its topography, rainfall pattern and solar and wind effect.

Mr Manu said he hoped that the salt industry would be rekindled under the PSI to enhance salt production and serve as raw material base for a chloro-alkali industry to flourish.