Crystal salt is popular in cities too - a fact even the branded salt manufacturers recognise. More and more manufacturers, who supply iodised salt, have decided to supply iodised crystal salt to the public as well. The latest to join the fray here is Camerin Laboratories, following the example of Hindustan Lever's `Annapurna' salt.

While Tata's iodised refined salt and DCW Home products' Captain Cook are well entrenched in Chennai and in some of the smaller cities, salt manufacturers are not quite successful in totally weaning away the Tamil crowd from crystal salt.

The potential for iodised salt is huge in Tamil Nadu. Of the total salt requirement of 3.6 lakh tonnes per annum, only 70,000 tonnes of iodised salt is being consumed.

Manyof the villagers (not withstanding the ban) still buy salt from the local vendors at their door steps who sell common crystal salt and get away with it.

While manufacturers have been permitted to produce 20 lakh tonnes of refined salt (free flow) in the state, only 6 lakh tonnes are actually being refined and sold. The reason could be the popularity of crystal salt.However manufacturers of refined salt feel that free flow salt is gaining ground over non-refined powder salt.

``The difference in price between non-refined powder salt and refined powder salt is only Rs 1.50 per kg (refined salt sells at Rs 6/kg) and even poor people are not worried about this,'' said APS Raju of Camerin Labs.

The company is going to invest Rs 20 crore in setting up a centrifuge plant and is currently testing the market by independently sourcing and selling salt. ``The preference for crystal salt cannot be overlooked,'' he admitted and he will be selling iodised salt in uniform crystals to make his pack more attractive. Theunorganised sector abounds in this market accounting for more than 65 per cent of salt sales. Quality controls are also poor.

Even the iodine that has to be mandatorily added (30ppm) is not done. The bigger manufacturers who do not wish to compromise on quality and who have to advertise more, are wading through competition.