Kadabba Salt Producers S.C. plans to construct modern salt, Iodization factory in Afar, Ethiopia, Capital reported.

The factory, which will be constructed in Semera, capital of Afar, will cost 200 million Birr. The factory’s annual iodization capacity will be from 350,000 to 400,000 tons of salt. The salt would be useful for medical and water treatment, mining and for other industrial purposes.

The construction of the factory would start this Ethiopian budget year on 300,000 square meter of land.

Salt production in Afar is currently conducted in a small factory in Afdera. Its ability to process and iodize the salt is limited as a result of constant failure of machinery. Majority of the local salt producers also use traditional methods of iodization by using knapsacks and manual sprayers.

The factory will bring about significant improvements to the quantity and quality of iodized salt in the market, Tahir Wehaberbi, President of Kadabba Salt told Capital.

According to a national survey undertaken by the Ethiopian Public Health Institute the past year, only 23 percent of the iodization met the standard from the annual four million ton salt production.