Exportadora de Sal, S.A., of C.V.

The company is located in Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur the settlement of which began in 1957 when a U.S. American by the name of Daniel Ludwig--who also constructed the hotel Acapulco Princess in the port of Acapulco, Guerrero--decided to install a salt works there to supply the demand of salt in the western United States. The salt mine was established around the Ojo de Liebre coastal lagoon taking advantage of the heavy salinity of the place, without realizing that eventually this company, called Exportadora de Sal, S.A., of C.V. ("Salt Exporters, Inc."), would become the greatest salt mine in the world, with a production of seven million tons of salt per annum, exported to the main centers of consumption in the Pacific basin, especially Japan, Korea, the United States, Canada, Taiwan and New Zealand. In 1973 Daniel Ludwig sold the company to the Mexican government and the corporation Mitsubishi, 51% and 49% respectively, giving rise to a historic business success which continues to the present. The production of salt at Guerrero currently comes from solar evaporation of seawater.

There was an effort by the company to construct another solar salt operation further down the Baja California coast however it was ended due to the objections of Mexican and American environmentalists. There is still the possibility of a chlor-alkali plant being built locally to process the salt into chemicals as is done by Mitsubishi elsewhere currently.

The company is distinguished not only by its growth and its yield, but also by the ProgresS which has reached more than a thousand employees, their community and its ecological surroundings: The salt works, located in a site of extraordinary beauty, within a reserve of the biosphere, has been pivotal in the development of the region, where each winter whales gather, many species of resident and migratory birds stay, visiting birds originating mainly in the United States and Europe.