China is planning to open its salt market in 2017, removing administrative price control to promote competition, the state planning agency announced on Sunday.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2017, China's edible salt markets will liberalize price control, permitting producers to set their retail and wholesale prices based on factors including production costs, salt quality, supply, and demand, the Indian Express reported citing the statement from the National Development and Reform Commission.

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The latest move aims to promote a healthy market competition and cross-region sales to maximize product quality and sales pattern, China's Daily People reported.

China initially announced plans of putting an end to 2,000-year-old state monopoly early this year. Under the new policy, license salt producers can now decide on their own scale of production and distribution as well as sell salt directly to various regions or other distributions instead of selling only to state distributors.

The government will also no longer issue new licenses for edible salt producers. Instead, private investors could invest or cooperate with existing salt firms in the market.

Despite loosening its belt under the new policy, the government still holds the responsibility of making sure that over 90 percent of good quality iodized salt reach the market. And at the same time, under "special circumstance," regulators are allowed to take temporary or emergency measures to maintain the edible salt market's price stability and "prevent abnormal fluctuations in price."

The initiative will finally put an end to the millenial-old state monopoly in the salt market. China has an abundant supply of salt and has seen oversupply in the past few years, thanks to its more than 300 registered producers and 4,000 distributors.

Tagschina, Salt monopoly, salt, Salt Market, Edible Salt, Iodized Salt