Anthela sanguine about prospects of Himalayan salt

Himalayan salt, a pink-hued organic variety of the food essential sourced from Pakistan, is becoming increasingly popular in China, fueled by growing demand from quality-conscious consumers.

Himalayan salt is on the dining tables of more Chinese consumers during occasions such as camping, barbecue parties and grilling steak at home, and it has been used to improve taste and for decorative purposes.

Anthela Foods Co Ltd, a Hong Kong-based processor and retailer of Himalayan salt, said the company is confident in its sales growth potential for the Singles Day online shopping event around Nov 11, supported by a trend of consumption upgrade among Chinese consumers.

"At first, some high-income middle-aged Chinese consumers shaped the main group of buyers, but consumers have become increasingly younger, as more young people are pursuing healthy and quality lifestyles," said Bai Shun, CEO and founder of Anthela Foods.

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly strengthened health awareness among Chinese consumers, and the awareness of pursuing healthy lifestyles has shifted from the elderly to the young, driving sales growth of healthy products and food, according to a report by consultancy Boston Consulting Group.

Founded in 2015, Anthela started to first sell Himalayan salt in Hong Kong and some overseas markets such as Italy.

In early 2019, the company began to sell the products in the Chinese mainland market through cross-border e-commerce platforms, as cross-border e-commerce shopping turned popular in China.

Salt is on the white list of products for cross-border sales, and the products have been delivered to bonded warehouses in China from Pakistan, before finding its way to consumers.

Annual sales of Himalayan salt products of the company on the Chinese mainland have reached about 20 million yuan ($2.8 million) to 30 million yuan through cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Tmall Global, the company said.

"High-end food is accounting for a growing market share in China, supported by a group of consumers who have been pursuing high-quality lifestyles. Companies should raise their reputation by focusing on their main products with high qualities," said Gao Yanmin, a former Ministry of Industry and Information Technology official.

"The production of green food has become an important goal and inevitable choice for the high-quality development of the food industry in China. Enterprises should increase online and offline marketing efforts to continuously raise the market share of high-quality food," Gao added.

Himalayan salt is mainly sourced from Warcha salt mine in Pakistan, which is part of the Salt Range, the second-largest underground salt mine in the world. The salt was formed over 200 million years ago from ancient ocean water crystallization.

The world's largest salt mine is the Sifto mine in Ontario, Canada, according to American Mine Services.

When he went on a business trip to Pakistan many years ago, Bai said he observed the tremendous potential of the salt mine, but local processing conditions were undeveloped. This triggered the idea of founding a company with a complete industry chain from mining to sales.

Now, after 11 production processes, salt from the mine is polished into high-quality food-grade Himalayan salt, and transported to the nearest port for shipment.

Himalayan salt is commonly seen as a kind of high-end salt in the United States and Europe.

Anthela Foods has also provided raw materials of the salt to some foreign brands that sell their products in overseas supermarkets such as Costco and HomeGoods in the US.

In Hong Kong, the products have been sold at supermarkets such as ParknShop, CR Vanguard and Yata Department Store. The brand also sells its products at brick-and-mortar stores in South Korea and Japan.