Salt gatherers look for new work

PALU, Central Sulawesi: Up to 200 salt gatherers along Talise Beach here have been forced to find new ways to earn a living since constant rain has prevented them from collecting salt.

Many have shifted to catching benur (young shrimp), selling bread or working in construction.

"We can no longer work the salt fields since it has continually rained over the past five months," Haris Ali, 56, a gatherer said on Wednesday.

He said only a few salt gatherers actually owned salt fields. The uncertainty of collecting the commodity has affected salt prices here which have gone up to Rp 22,500 per 50 kilograms from an earlier price Rp 12,500 per 50 kg.

Remaining stocks at the local market are expected to last only to the middle of this month, the father of nine said.

Daeng Sompo, 54, another salt gatherer now seeking work in construction, said the salt was also bought by cacao farmers for fertilizer.

Salt gatherers say they are now increasingly dependent on loan sharks to whom they must later sell their salt.