salt industry institutional reform plan

To carry out salt industry reform, State Council set out demands covering

  • encouraging production and wholesale enterprises to merge and private enterprises to join SOEs
  • improving the system of professional regulation, leaving the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) in charge nationwide, and local offices responsible for local salt businesses

  • transferring the management and supervision functions for quality and safety to China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA)
  • relaxing regional restrictions for salt production and wholesale, abolishing the rule that appointed production enterprises can only sell to designated wholesale enterprises
  • allowing manufacturers to carry out sales campaigns, and wholesalers to operate across regions and adopt modern distribution, such as e-commerce, chain management and logistics
  • loosening price controls, allowing the market to determine prices while continuing retail pricing supervision
  • building a national reserve system for edible salt and iodine