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Sea salt extraction is an exceptional coastline activity, capable of creating both economic and environmental wealth.

This exemplary compromise underlies the very nature of sea salt extraction, which consists of moving the sea water over large surfaces, called salt marshes, gradually increasing the salt concentration by natural evaporation, through the combined action of the sun and wind, until the salt is deposited in super-saturation. ‘Machines’ are present only to facilitate the collection of the salt, which takes place in a very restricted portion of the domain.

A Natural Activity which Reconciles the Economy and the Environment

Salt extraction converts vast open spaces into ‘sanctuaries’, where human presence is very limited, and where activity is confined to implementing natural processes, creating a wetlands environment endowed with a high degree of salinity and managed in a countercyclical way.

The salt extraction activity is therefore at the very source of an original - and particularly rich and diverse – ecosystem. The two are mutually dependent, because the quantity and quality of the salt produced depends on the quality of the surrounding environment. This environment is therefore carefully maintained by the salt producers, who are veritable ‘coastline farmers’.

Total symbiosis between salt extraction and the coastline is therefore achieved.

An Important Challenge but a Fragile Situation.

Along the Mediterranean coastline, many kilometres of coast and thousands of hectares of wetlands are thus protected and incorporated into a process of sustainable development.

But this situation needs to be looked after carefully :

- Sea salt marshes are under increasing economic pressure, resulting from a general tendency to over-produce and the increasing globalisation of trade. [In this climate of competition, French sea salt extraction is penalised by its limiting climatic conditions (the amount of sun and rain) which gives production a very random nature. This, in turn, has a bearing on quality and costs. Furthermore, with the falling costs and simplification of transport, market proximity is no longer the determining factor it once was].

- Moreover, because its sites are located on low-lying coastline, salt extraction is particularly vulnerable to coastline erosion and to marine pollution: shore-line defences are therefore vital. However, the financial burden this places on salt producers is very high and is rising all the time.

- More unexpectedly, at least from initial analyses, the quality and rarity of these natural environments is leading to increasing social pressure as people and elected representatives begin to realise the social utility value attached to these salt marshes. In particular, claims for participation in their management, and calls for free access to these areas, and even appropriation of wetlands by the authorities are being made. Environmental associations are seeking, for example, to put salt beds under active surveillance, without apparent awareness of the paradoxical risks inherent in limiting the very activity which gives rise to the presence of the habitats and the protected species concerned. We need to be careful, ecological activity could act against the interests of ecology !

Everybody has a Role to Play

For sea salt producers, adapting to the competition and reacting to threats is an economic imperative, as for any company. In this case, it means protecting the environment, because stopping the circulation of water in a salt bed rapidly leads to a loss of its biological diversity. In the long term, the best way to guarantee this circulation is not to make it a subsidised ‘tourist attraction’, but to ensure its economic viability.

Each one of us can and should support this endeavour: public authorities, of course, because their policies are now moving away from an ethic of economic development towards an ethic of coastline protection. Such authorities must now accept that salt extraction is an exemplary activity and accord it its rightful place in our coastal landscapes by supporting the salt extraction activity and subsidising certain actions which would benefit the local community, for example, shore defences. However, each of us can also play a major role by choosing to consume Mediterranean sea salt, not only because of its great taste, but also because this constitutes a positive act in favour of this precious environmental resource, which would not exist today without salt marsh extraction.

The Commitment of the Salins Group

Thanks to the Salins group, the Mediterranean coastline has a major salt producer which is resolutely committed to preserving this activity, while promoting a dynamic environmental management structure and reacting positively to other societal expectations (safety at work, food safety, authenticity, transparency, etc.)

At Salins, environmental performance objectives are just as important as production objectives. A department has been created to manage these natural habitats and is specifically tasked with understanding and managing interactions with the fauna and flora of the salt marshes and to promoting the most effective solutions. The bio-diversity in the zones owned by the Salins group clearly demonstrates that the company has always been active in the conservation of... living coastlines.