The salt harvest has started on time this week at Punta de la Banya, in the Ebro delta, with the expectation of obtaining 120,000 tons and breaking the historical production record.
According to Infosa, the company that operates the Trinitat salt flats, the dry winds during winter and spring, the scarce rains and the heat have combined, in this case, to give rise to an extraordinary volume of salt after three meager bells.
The existing layer of more than 10 centimeters will also allow obtaining a product with less insoluble material and, therefore, of higher quality. The company, which exports two thirds of its production to France or the United States, plans to increase its turnover by 15 million euros in recent years.
For the first time in the last four years, Infosa expects to far exceed the average production considered normal between 95,000 and 100,000 tons. To the point of being able to set a new record in the nearly 150 years of activity in the Trinidad salt flats, in the protected area of ??Punta de la Banya.
Three years ago, in the middle of the pandemic and as a result of the ravages of the Gloria storm, the campaign remained at around 40,000 tons. In 2021, although 100,000 tons of input were expected, the fateful downpours of September 3 spoiled 25,000 tons of salt in one night. Last 2022, the harvest remained at 85,000 tons.
Infosa’s manager, Manel Salvadó, does not hide his satisfaction at these extraordinary harvest forecasts. This result, he points out, is explained by the abundance of dry winds -such as the mistral- during winter and spring. “It was a year like the ones that were typical in Terres de l’Ebre 20 years ago, with an alternation between the west and north wind”, he specifies.
“This has given us a spectacular brine quality to start the campaign. In summer we have had a lot of heat and little rain and that has helped,” he specified. Unlike the vast majority of crops and the primary sector, the lack of rainfall is, paradoxically, one of the key factors for a good campaign to come together, Salvadó acknowledges.
On the contrary, the fleur de sel campaign, a gourmet product that had found a good start in recent years, will not be so good in the end. Between 15 and 17 tons will be produced, which, according to Salvadó, will end up being sold easily. In this case, some episodes of gregal wind -wetter- this summer have prevented greater production.
The large expected production, in quantitative terms, will also help to considerably improve the quality of the product. The layer of salt that is collected is thicker, up to eleven centimeters, which helps to avoid the presence of impurities or insoluble materials in the upper and lower layers that must be cleaned later.
Salvadó points to the quality of the production of Punta del Banya as a “comparative advantage” that has allowed Infosa to become the second largest marketer of sea salt in France and the third in the United States. A valuation that generates important growth expectations in these important markets. The company is mainly focused on exports: between 65% and 67% of production goes abroad. On the contrary, despite the attempts in recent years to improve positions in Spain, the generally lower prices do not allow them to be as competitive.
In recent years, Infosa has had an annual turnover of around 15 million euros, a figure that they expect to exceed in 2023. Salvadó, however, specifies that, after a scenario of consecutive low productions in the last three years, sales will be limited to guarantee the existence of a greater stock in the face of possible future contingencies. This could be the case of the swimming pool sector, one of the sectors with the highest growth and to which some 15,000 tons are allocated each campaign. The same figure as food. Industrial food reaches 30,000.
According to the manager, in addition, the commitment to growth should allow us to counteract a “breakdown in very beastly cost structures” over the last year and a half, with a considerable increase in the prices of services, transport or raw materials. “We have to try to reposition ourselves, maintain the margin and the jobs, which is the main objective,” he says. The company has a staff of 62 workers, 52 of whom work at the Punta de la Banya farm.
The other great challenge for the company, figures aside, is to immediately solve the access problems to the Punta de la Banya facilities through the fragile Trabucador bar, very vulnerable to successive easterly storms.
According to Salvadó, the proposal presented to modify a section of road near the entrance of the facilities that “practically ends in the sea” is pending a response from the Ministry for Ecological Transition. He specified that the project, agreed with the natural park and the demarcation of Coasts in Tarragona, would allow the road to be moved some 50 meters inland to prevent the sea from finally swallowing it up.
On the contrary, Infosa already seems resigned to giving up the battle to build a maritime shipping dock, as an alternative to get the product out and reach the facilities when the storms cut the Trabucador isthmus.
“We compete with mother-of-pearl, which is in danger of extinction, and the Ministry considers that in the place where we want to make the pier, although it has not had mother-of-pearl in the last 50 years, there may be. We are waiting for a technical solution to accommodate our interests and those of the Ministry”, has settled the manager.
