The salt works at Aigues-Mortes, in the Camargue, produces 250,000 tonnes of salt per year. Its packaging workshops cover more than a third of the requirements for the French market in terms of human and animal food.

The transformation facility for unrefined sea salt at Aigues-Mortes is the most modern in the world.

Approximately five centuries B.C., a colony from the island of Rhodes arrived and settled at the mouth of the Rhone River. These settlers were drawn to the beach by the climate and, most probably, the salt trade. According to history, these early settlers from Rhodes gave their name to the river: ‘Rhôdanus’ which later became ‘Rosne’ and then ‘Rhone’.

 The origins of the Peccius (Peccais) salt works -
the oldest in the Mediterranean - date back to Antiquity

At the beginning of the Christian era, the Roman engineer Peccius was made responsible for organising salt production at Aigues-Mortes.

In the 13th century, almost all of the salt works at Peccais jointly belonged to the monks at Psalmodi and the lords of Uzès and Aimargues.

In 1248, when the territory of Aigues-Mortes was ceded to Louis IX (Saint Louis), the monks at Psalmodi built a new salt works of their own: Salin de l’Abbé (the Abbey salt works).

In 1248, a convention was passed between the Lord of Uzès and the Abbey at Psalmodi, establishing joint measures for operating their respective salt works.

Among other conditions, this act established ‘…that the measurements in bushels or fifths used at their respective salt works would have the same dimensions and that the workers driven off one of the properties would not be employed at the other… “

At this time, the lords of Uzès did not delay in taking various private owners into vassalage for their salt works in Peccais, keeping a seventh of the harvest as seigniorial right..

In March 1290, Lord Bermond d’Uzès ceded to King Philip the Fair (the grandson of Saint Louis) the entire property of the domain of Peccais, along with the seigniorial right of a seventh of the harvest, evaluated at an income of 350 pounds (6,377 gold francs) in exchange for the châteaux and villages of Pouzilhac and Saint-Martin-de-Jonquières and the Barony of Remoulins.

In 1546, the Knights of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, whose Grand Prior lived in Saint-Gilles, built a new salt works (Salin de Saint-Jean), in a lake on their property in Listel (the ‘Ile de Stell’) - immediately next to Peccais.

At the end of the 17th century, there were 17 salt works in the domain of Peccais, invested to various owners who operated each of them individually. The names of these salt works were: L’Abbé – Les Aubettes – Bourbuisset – Les Brassives – La Courbe – La Donzelle – Les Etaques – La Fangouze – La Gaujouze – Le Gay – La Lone – Le Margagnon – Mirecoule – Roquemaure – Saint-Jean – Les Tuillières – Les Terrasses.

In 1716, the owners of all the secular salt works, except from l’Abbé and Saint-Jean that belonged to the Church, considered forming a single company.

It was finally decided to appoint a managing agent each year, to operate all of the salt works by joint expenditure and to share the yield.

His Lordship, the Bishop of Alais, the owner of l’Abbé, decided to join this company a few years later.

Only the salt works of Saint-Jean, whose owner was the Grand Prior of Saint-Gilles, did not join this company and this salt works continued to operate independently.

The king became the principal stakeholder in the sale of salt because of the considerable salt tax (la gabelle) and made his farmers-general responsible for the control of production and the fight against contraband.

In 1790, a decree of the Convention declared the salt works at Peccais to be national property. After the Revolution, however, the salt works were returned to their owners, except for the Church properties (l’Abbé and Saint-Jean) which remained the property of the State.

Until the end of the 18th century, all the salt works were located within the domain of Peccais.

In 1840 and 1842, following the flooding of the Rhone River, the owners joined up with a merchant from Montpellier, who had just bought the Abbé and Saint-Jean salt works from the State.

In 1856, they created a public company with the name Compagnie des Salins du Midi.

Started in Aigues-Mortes, the young and dynamic Compagnie des Salins du Midi would progressively take control (and then ownership) of all the salt works on the Mediterranean coast of France.

In 1950, this company merged with the Société des Salines de Djibouti, Sfax et Madagascar and its name became Compagnie des Salins du Midi et des Salines de Djibouti.

In 1969, the company merged again with Salines de l’Est et du Sud-Ouest changing its name to Compagnie des Salins du Midi et des Salines de l’Est (C.S.M.E.) .