Switzerland's main publicly-owned salt works said Tuesday that it had turned down new orders from the snowbound Netherlands and Germany in order to cater for booming domestic needs in the cold snap.
Many countries are running low on salt to clear roads in the unusually widespread and lengthy wave of icy weather that has cloaked much of Europe with snow over the past fortnight.
Schweizer Rheinsalinen, a monopoly owned by Swiss regional governments, had to give priority to clearance needs at home, sales manager Armin Roos told AFP following the orders from Germany and the Netherlands.
"The situation is so fragile that were can't take the risk of delivering abroad," he explained. "We're running round the clock."
"We'll give Switzerland priority because we have an obligation to guarantee salt deliveries," Roos added.
Over the past 10 days alone the salt works have distributed about 40,000 tonnes of salt and have about 58,000 tonnes left in storage.
The Alpine nation normally consumes about 100,000 tonnes of salt over a whole year to clear public highways, according to the firm's website.
Schweizer Rheinsalinen's two salt mines are churning out about 2,000 to 2,400 tonnes a day.
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