How Indian sea salt is made

India is the world’s third-largest salt producer, at an estimated 28 million tonnes in 2024 according to the US Geological Survey, and Gujarat made about 85% of India’s salt in 2021-22, according to the Indian Bureau of Mines. Around 80% of India’s salt is sea salt. Brine is led through a series of shallow pans where sun and wind concentrate it until salt crystallises; the crystals are harvested, stacked and, for food grades, washed, dried and graded. The season runs roughly from October to June; the monsoon floods the pans from about June to September.

“Natural” includes what is in the sea

This is the most important section of this page.

Unrefined sea salt is valued precisely because it has not been dissolved, purified and recrystallised. That also means it keeps much of what the sea water carried, including things no one wants. In August 2024, the Indian environmental group Toxics Link reported microplastics in all ten salt samples it tested — packaged iodised salt, rock salt, sea salt and local raw salt — at between 6.71 and 89.15 pieces per kilogram of dry weight, with particles from 0.1 mm to 5 mm in the form of fibres, pellets, films and fragments. The highest count was in a packaged iodised salt and the lowest in an organic rock salt. It was a small study of ten samples, and it does not show that any one type of salt is safe or unsafe. It does show that no category of salt in that market was free of microplastics, sea salt included.

Neither the Codex Standard for Food Grade Salt (CXS 150) nor India’s FSSAI salt standard sets a limit for microplastics. That leaves buyers to manage the issue themselves, and it is better to do so openly than to print “pure” and hope no one tests.

“Mineral-rich” still has to be at least 97% salt

Unrefined sea salt is often marketed as rich in minerals. The Codex Standard for Food Grade Salt allows the remainder beyond sodium chloride to consist of natural secondary products — mainly sulphates, carbonates, bromides and chlorides of calcium, potassium, magnesium and sodium — but it requires at least 97% sodium chloride on a dry basis, exclusive of additives. So in a Codex-compliant food salt, everything that is not sodium chloride, minerals included, adds up to no more than about 3%. At normal salt intakes, those minerals are a very small part of the diet. “Contains naturally occurring minerals” is an honest description. “A source of minerals” invites a nutritional claim that national rules may not allow.

Organic salt: legally unsettled

Salt is a mineral, not a farmed crop, and an organic claim on salt is not something we can document to a standard that every market accepts. We therefore do not recommend labelling salt as organic, and we will not supply salt with an organic claim we cannot back up. If you sell into a Member State with its own organic-salt specification, tell us and we will look at it with you before anything is printed.

Grades and uses

Specification: what should be in the contract

Where the buyers are

India exported about US$333.4 million of salt in 2023, according to UN Comtrade data reported by TrendEconomy. South Korea took 13.1% of that by value and Japan 7.92%, although Japan’s own records show much smaller imports from India, so treat that figure with care. Korea’s food industry is a large user of solar salt for vegetable salting and fermented foods, and Japan and Germany have well-developed markets for natural and speciality salts; the Gulf is a short voyage from Gujarat. Salt statistics (HS 2501) do not separate sea salt crystals from other salt, so we do not quote a market share for this grade. This guide is published in English, Korean, Japanese, German and Arabic for those markets.

Packing: private labelling from 1 kg to 50 kg, and bulk shipments

RNG Agro Exports offers private labelling from 1 kg to 50 kg pack sizes, and we also handle bulk shipments.

Working with RNG Agro Exports

We are based in Rajkot, Gujarat, the state that makes about 85% of India’s salt, and we supply sea salt crystals from qualified producers on the Gujarat coast. What we offer a sea salt buyer is not a perfect story. It is an accurate one: which brine the salt came from, what it contains and what it does not, the claims your label can honestly carry, and a certificate of analysis for every lot.

Frequently asked questions

Does natural sea salt contain microplastics?

It can, and so can other salts. In August 2024 the Indian environmental group Toxics Link reported microplastics in all ten salt samples it tested in India — packaged iodised salt, rock salt, sea salt and local raw salt — at between 6.71 and 89.15 pieces per kilogram of dry weight, in sizes from 0.1 mm to 5 mm. The highest count was in a packaged iodised salt and the lowest in an organic rock salt. It was a small study and does not prove any single salt safe or unsafe, but it shows no category was free of microplastics. Neither Codex CXS 150 nor India’s FSSAI salt standard sets a limit for them. Buyers can specify foreign matter and insolubles limits, commission testing on a pre-shipment sample, and should avoid absolute claims such as “free from microplastics”.

Is unrefined sea salt a good source of minerals?

Not in any meaningful dietary sense. The Codex Standard for Food Grade Salt allows the remainder beyond sodium chloride to consist of natural secondary products such as sulphates, carbonates and chlorides of calcium, potassium and magnesium, but it requires at least 97% sodium chloride on a dry basis, exclusive of additives. So in a Codex-compliant food salt, everything that is not sodium chloride adds up to no more than about 3%, and at normal salt intakes those minerals contribute very little to the diet. “Contains naturally occurring minerals” is an honest description; presenting sea salt as a source of minerals invites a nutrition claim that national rules may not permit.

Can sea salt be certified organic?

The position is unsettled. In the European Union, sea salt and other salts for food and feed have been within the scope of Regulation (EU) 2018/848 since 1 January 2022, but the detailed production rules proposed by the Commission in May 2023 were rejected by the European Parliament on 11 July 2023, so there are no harmonised EU rules for producing organic salt, although some Member States have national specifications. In the United States, salt is treated as a non-agricultural ingredient and, together with water, is excluded when a product’s organic percentage is calculated. Because salt is a mineral rather than a farmed crop, we do not recommend organic claims on salt and will not supply salt with an organic claim we cannot document.

Is all Indian “sea salt” made from sea water?

Not all of it. Gujarat, which produced about 85% of India’s salt in 2021-22 according to the Indian Bureau of Mines, makes salt both from sea water evaporated in coastal works and from very salty subsoil brine pumped in the Little Rann of Kutch, inland. The Rann brine is marine in origin, but it is groundwater rather than sea water drawn from the coast. If your label uses the term “sea salt”, and particularly if your market regulates it, ask your supplier which brine the salt came from and write the answer into the contract. We state the brine source on request for every lot we supply.

Do you offer private labelling and bulk shipments for sea salt?

Yes. RNG Agro Exports offers private labelling from 1 kg to 50 kg pack sizes and also handles bulk shipments. Typical formats are 1 kg pouches and grinder refill packs for retail brands, 2 kg to 5 kg packs for food service and home fermentation, 10 kg to 25 kg bags for restaurants, bakeries and kimchi or pickle producers, 50 kg bags for food manufacturers and repackers, big bags of about one tonne for large processors, and sea salt crystals in bulk containers, quoted on enquiry. Tell us the grade and crystal size, every claim your label will carry, your destination and your annual quantity, and we will confirm what the salt can honestly support before anything is printed.

• It can, and so can other salts. In August 2024 the Indian environmental group Toxics Link reported microplastics in all ten salt samples it tested in India — packaged iodised salt, rock salt, sea salt and local raw salt — at between 6.71 and 89.15 pieces per kilogram of dry weight, in sizes from 0.1 mm to 5 mm. The highest count was in a packaged iodised salt and the lowest in an organic rock salt. It was a small study and does not prove any single salt safe or unsafe, but it shows no category was free of microplastics. Neither Codex CXS 150 nor India’s FSSAI salt standard sets a limit for them. Buyers can specify foreign matter and insolubles limits, commission testing on a pre-shipment sample, and should avoid absolute claims such as “free from microplastics”.
• Not in any meaningful dietary sense. The Codex Standard for Food Grade Salt allows the remainder beyond sodium chloride to consist of natural secondary products such as sulphates, carbonates and chlorides of calcium, potassium and magnesium, but it requires at least 97% sodium chloride on a dry basis, exclusive of additives. So in a Codex-compliant food salt, everything that is not sodium chloride adds up to no more than about 3%, and at normal salt intakes those minerals contribute very little to the diet. “Contains naturally occurring minerals” is an honest description; presenting sea salt as a source of minerals invites a nutrition claim that national rules may not permit.
• The position is unsettled. In the European Union, sea salt and other salts for food and feed have been within the scope of Regulation (EU) 2018/848 since 1 January 2022, but the detailed production rules proposed by the Commission in May 2023 were rejected by the European Parliament on 11 July 2023, so there are no harmonised EU rules for producing organic salt, although some Member States have national specifications. In the United States, salt is treated as a non-agricultural ingredient and, together with water, is excluded when a product’s organic percentage is calculated. Because salt is a mineral rather than a farmed crop, we do not recommend organic claims on salt and will not supply salt with an organic claim we cannot document.
• Not all of it. Gujarat, which produced about 85% of India’s salt in 2021-22 according to the Indian Bureau of Mines, makes salt both from sea water evaporated in coastal works and from very salty subsoil brine pumped in the Little Rann of Kutch, inland. The Rann brine is marine in origin, but it is groundwater rather than sea water drawn from the coast. If your label uses the term “sea salt”, and particularly if your market regulates it, ask your supplier which brine the salt came from and write the answer into the contract. We state the brine source on request for every lot we supply.

Sea water or subsoil brine? Gujarat salt comes from two kinds of brine: sea water evaporated in coastal works, and the very salty subsoil brine pumped in the Little Rann of Kutch, inland. The Rann brine is marine in origin, but it is groundwater, not sea water drawn from the coast. If your label says “sea salt”, and especially if your market regulates that term, ask which brine the salt came from and choose accordingly. We will tell you.