China produced 17.81 million tons of salt during the first six months of this year, but output still far exceeds sales, according to a leading salt company executive.

Dong Zhihua, general manager of China National Salt Corp., told a national conference on salt Thursday that the country's overall production capacity reached 42 million tons last year, while sales totaled 33 million tons.

There are around 1,300 salt producing companies on the Chinese mainland, and their average production capacity is only 30,000 tons a year.

But for table salt, sales volume surpassed output, said the general manager.

China produced 3.9 million tons of table salt, up 16 percent, during the six-month period, while sales volume totaled US$3.97 million, up 13.7 percent.

The general manager said 95 percent of the country's population had access to iodized salt, which was used to prevent iodine deficiency diseases.

(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2003)