Overview

The salt production in the enlarged EU and Switzerland is approximately 45 million ton per year, mostly produced with modern techniques in rock mines, evaporation plants or sea saltworks.
The worldwide annual commercial production has increased over the past century from 10 million ton to around 220 million ton per year.
Nearly 100 countries have all kinds of salt producing facilities: big or small, simple and advanced technology, sea salt plants, rock salt mines and solution mining with evaporation facilities.

As a supplier to the food, the chemical, the pharmaceutical and many other industries, the salt industry plays an essential and vital role for both the economics and the consumer.
Not only do we eat salt, salt is also frequently used for many other purposes, and is, today, the largest mineral feedstock consumed by the world chemical industry.