From the beginning: the birth of Asilia Salt
Asilia Salt is the UK newest sea salt brand and aren’t we excited to finally be here! As a quick overview of who we are: Family-owned sustainable salt farm producing sea salt with the help of mother nature in Tanzania. There is much more to us but this is just the tip of the iceberg as there is much more to our past, present, and future.
From the beginning, there was a salt farm…
So, Asilia Salt really began in 1951 when my great grandfather, Henry, bought a small, remote salt farm in the Bagamoyo region of Tanzania after working on a salt farm for 10 years before this. Fast forward to 2023, we are now on the fourth generation who are involved in salt farming. Each generation has had a major impact and improved our salt farm in one way or another. Slowly but surely, we began perfecting the art of producing high quality and beautiful sea salt.
The Birth of Asilia Salt
The concept of Asilia Salt began in the UK in 2018. My dad and I were walking along a supermarket aisle and, naturally, stopped by the salt section. We came across Maldon Sea Salt, Cornish Sea Salt, and Halen Mon. We bought all three and their different flavoured salts to see what it was all about. We were amazed by the branding, packaging, flavours, and pricing. Our main thought process was – why can’t we do this? This was quickly followed by how do we do also join the gourmet sea salt market? So, this is where and how the idea of Asilia began – down a supermarket aisle.
Fast forward to the beginning of 2021, pandemic reeking global havoc and we were still playing around with this idea. With the bleak outlook from the global lockdowns, the family decided to make the leap of faith with this idea. We had very little retail experience, no idea about developing a brand, and not much of an idea about product development. But we knew how to make really good sea salt! Passion is usually a good starting point.
The Leap of Faith
As a group, we took this one idea and grew it piece by piece. We started backwards with the aim: How do we get into a shop in the UK? We learned that there were a few hoops to jump through to get from an isolated salt farm in Kitame, Tanzania to the United Kingdom. Well, let’s try anyway! Meanwhile, we will also start a market here in Tanzania – welcome Bagamoyo Sea Salt. So, this is the start of our journey, the first step is to build a small factory to create some delicious, flavoured salts. Stay tuned for more!