Salt  produced in Bangladesh mainly by a process of drying up seawater by solar heat, although the lixivation technology is also in use to manufacture about 5% of the production. Salt was manufactured in Bengal as an indigenous product along a line of seacoast extending from Cuttock to Chittagong. The Malangies were the primary producers of salt from the seawater.

The salt industry was some sort of government monopoly during the Mughal period. The management was in the hands of zamindars, who worked in collaboration with local merchants and advanced money for salt production. Between 1757 and 1765, many Englishmen entered the salt business either directly or indirectly through the banians. The Society of Trade formed in 1765 organised British participation in salt industry for the benefit of the officers of the east india company. Later, warren hastings imposed a government monopoly in salt and introduced a farming system under which salt mahals were leased out for five years to the highest bidders in auctions. The system was discontinued in 1777 and was replaced by annual contracts. This system continued until 1780, when the Company introduced the agency system under which direct management of salt production by the company was combined with marketing through auction. The system was in operation until the end of the Company's monopoly in 1862.

The revenue administration imposed by the Company, the import of salt from abroad and prohibition of salt production in India practically destroyed the indigenous salt industry. The mounting discontent of the salt producers later led to several movements against the British government. The Pakistani rulers followed similar policy and held monopoly on salt trade. The relationship between the government and salt producers was not conducive to a healthy growth of salt industry in East Pakistan. Salt manufacturers of the province were worse off especially because of the government's discriminatory policy of protecting the interest of salt manufacturers of Karachi. The formal organisations in charge of development of salt industry were the Directorate of Industries and the Small Industries Corporation. The latter conducted a census of salt producing units in 1964 and found a total of 16,541 such units that used 11,769 acres of land and employed 50,854 labourers. The production volume was about 0.3 million tons valued at Tk 20 million.

The salt producing areas were in coastal belt of chittagong, noakhali, barisal and khulna districts and the offshore lands. Production fluctuated from year to year due to natural calamities, variations in rainfall and changes in the terms of land lease. After liberation of Bangladesh in 1971, the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation took up the task of developing the industry. It launched a Tk 13 million project supplemented by a subsequent UNICEF assisted Tk 22.6 million programme. The salt production, however, never reached the pre-independence level and was only 696 tons in 1994 necessitating the import of 328 tons. Of the total available quantity of 1,023 tons, 666 tons was for household consumption and the remaining was for industrial purposes, mostly in tannery.

Besides being an essential ingredient in cooking, salt is used in production of pharmaceuticals (including orsaline) and detergents, preservation of food (especially dry fish in coastal areas) and manufacture of detergents. The industry faces a number of problems, including difficulties in introducing modern technology, lack of adequate bank finance, poor storage facilities and the conflicts between the producers and the middlemen in salt trading. A major development in the industry is production of iodised salt. A growing reorientation of the consumers toward using iodised salt to prevent goiter, cretinism, dwarfism, and some other diseases contributes to a fast growth of its production and marketing. This is gradually reshaping the salt market including packaging and promotional activities. [M Habibullah]