Cerebos Salt Factory is situated just before the bridge that crosses the Berg River going into Velddrif from Cape Town on the R27. Flo Els, of Gideon Estates, spoke to the Operations Manager, Steve Lombard, to gain some insight into the Salt Factory and its effect on the area. October 2010
Processing Salt
The process starts with the salty sea water, which is pumped from the sea. Salty river water is a backup resource in summer, if for some reason it cannot be pumped from the sea. The River water is only utilised in summer when the tide comes in. During the winter, the river water is too fresh due to the fairly frequent rains upstream. The river pump house is on the beach in Port Owen, near wooden houses and a caravan park, where a lot of people stay permanently.
The salty water is gravity fed through the pans to the factory. The closer it gets to the harvesting area, the saltier it becomes.
As the water becomes saltier, it turns into a place where brine shrimp thrive, but at a certain, rather high, level of salinity, the brine shrimp become sluggish. That is when the flamingos scoop them up and eat them, serving as our natural salt pan cleaners.
The water is then pumped to smaller areas, where the salt concentration gets extremely high. When salinity levels get up to 22 or 23 BAUME’s, they can harvest the salt.
But it doesn’t end there. Some of the water carries on, still under the force of gravity. A 2nd system takes this excess, to more salt pans, where the process is repeated again. Past the Salt Factory’s borders, they lease the extra ground for this 2nd system from the neighbouring farmers.
Other farmers in the area also produce salt. This gives the farmers additional income. They provide up to about 30% of the salt output from the factory.
During the washing process at Cerebos, the salt is crushed and washed, screened, dried and heated. The crystals in the mounds of salt extracted can be quite large. An example of one crystal observed, was over half the size of a 10 cent coin. Small grains of sand can be trapped inside these salt crystals. That is why the salt is crushed, washed, dried and heated, so we, as consumers, can enjoy grit-free salt.
All light material, dust, feathers, guano, twigs and stones are washed off.
They use a highly concentrated brine to wash the salt.
Salinity is measured in a unit called BAUME.
Normal Sea Water = 3 BAUME’s
The Dead Sea in Israel = 12 BAUME’s
Washing Brine = 25 BAUME’s (anything below 23 starts dissolving the salt)
Temperature control is important, with foremen checking with management when there is a variation that could cause concern.
The ‘Tumble drier’ dries the salt and a heater follows in the process, to kill little parasites. The heater sterilises the salt at 140 degrees C.
Part of the quality control, is to send samples away from every batch, to see if it is clear from growth of any organisms. All seems to be eliminated by the heater.
We all like to use clean salt, and Fish factories especially, need the purest salt.
There are three ways to check on the quality of the salt: the front, lab results and sending it away for testing and analysis.
If two of the three are within specification, then it can pass. Otherwise they must wait for the lab results to make sure it is right.
The salt is transported to Cape Town, with transport being the biggest cost factor.
Cerebos supplies the West Coast, Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg.
While there is a packaging area in Alrode, the only salt pans with factories are in Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape, and here, in Velddrif, on the West Coast.
The plant in Port Elizabeth makes fine table salt; not course or medium salt
They used to make course and medium salt, but changed their refinery to mechanical driers, so now make only refined salt.
The Berg River plant does bulk supply of course and medium salt.
Others
When the Flaminkvlei development started, some people didn’t want it.
Those who have retired here, it seems, enjoy their fun in the sun, the river and the sea. But people in the surrounding towns need work.
Cerebos is one of the biggest employers in the area. Other big employers include the Clothing Factory and Marine Products, although not on permanent basis.
Cerebos has a staff compliment of 70 permanent staff, plus an additional 6 in summer months, when harvesting is at its busiest.
Ecologically sound practices
Waste water goes back into the system and they reuse it. Their recycled water means they do not affect the natural river water around them. The do not pump it back into the river as such. They pump it back into the areas where they reuse it.
All waste-water goes down the drain to the bottom. They use the pump there to pump their concentrated wash water back to the factory, to wash the salt.
Then the pump down at the bottom would pump it back into the area where they make salt of it.
It is quite clear, that they recycle the water and do not actually affect the natural river system.
It can happen
About 3 years ago, just before Steve started working at this West Coast factory, they had a flood, where the river burst its banks and it had to be repaired to get everything back into ship shape again. But apart from that natural disaster, they do not put anything in the river.
For the birds, is it?
Because of it being bird friendly, there are people who really like all the birds that rest and nest around the edges of the salt pans. Others really seem to be bothered by the birds. Fishermen, on the whole, are not fond of cormorants, and the guano can smell when the wind blows the wrong way. Flamingos love salt water pans. As the water comes in and flows further down the system, the salt content gets higher. Brine shrimp get lazy at higher salt levels. That’s when the birds feed on them.
Ecologically speaking
One cannot pump brine back into the sea, as it will cause problems ecologically, in fact it would be a disaster.
If a Desalinisation Plant was operational in the area, it would have to sell the salt. They will have to get a market for their salt. It is a bi-product of extracting the fresh water. Again, the high cost of transport would come into play.
The operational cost to desalinate is high, and they must get rid of the salt. And salt cannot be dumped anywhere.
Nothing grows where there is salt. One must process it.
For example, there was salt imported from Botswana. In the process, it got wet. They wanted to sell it to Cerebos, but so far nothing has been seen of it. Cerebos would have to process it again from scratch. Therefore the importers would have to pay Cerebos to take it, who in turn, would have to rework the salt, get it back to crystal form and process it.
Talking of Desalination plants, Steve did receive a call from someone who wanted to know if Cerebos could buy salt. When asked what quantities were involved, he was simply informed that ‘it does not stop’. Steve asked the caller to give an analysis to see what is in it and what is not in it, to see if they could use it. So far, he has heard nothing further. There are all these options open to them.
They are battling to keep up with the demand for salt. They never seem to have enough. They are always behind with salt. They just had a break down on one of the machines and waited for weeks for parts from Germany.
JUST a bag of salt
An ordinary looking packet of salt on the shop shelf does not show the process that went into producing it.
In the past, Cerebos used to run iodated salt in the Green packet, and non-iodated salt in the Blue packet. Iodine adds to the cost of salt. But according to law, they must iodise all salt. The price of salt went up due to the enforced iodine content.
Investigations into health benefits of iodine might not have been sufficient, but we must comply.
Nowadays, the blue packet is labelled Table Salt, while the green shows Sea Salt.
At the coast, people tend to want to buy table salt, whereas inland the sea salt seems more popular. It seems the people living far from the sea would rather use sea salt.
Safety, Quality Assurance and other bits
Surprisingly, Cerebos is classified as a mine, as they take minerals from the ground. This means they fall under the department of Minerals and Resources. That means they are subjected to regular audits for health and safety.
On the Food and Beverage side, the factory is on its way to becoming HACCP compliant, for the customers’ benefit.
Also on a safety control note, there is a sign saying that NO GLASS is allowed on the premises. Why, you may ask? Simply because glass is breakable, and tiny bits of broken glass could look a bit too much like salt crystals. Also, glass does not float, so cannot be separated out with the twigs, feathers and dust. Brooms in the factory must also have coloured bristles, for similar reasons, and they consequently have no brooms with white bristles on the premises.
Vehicles on site develop more rust than usual, and, as with any industrial operation, machinery needs regular maintenance. Rust is a common problem, but using stainless steel would really push the price of salt up, way too high.
Public are welcome, so come and pay a visit . . .
Tours are available every Thursday at 10 for 10:30am. Their guide takes members of the public around to show them the factory and answer questions. Any further questions can be taken up with management, who will either know, or find out, the answers.
So, Cerebos has an ecologically friendly operation, they do not produce any pollution, do not affect the environment, and have actually given the farmers around them, another source of income, buying their salt.
And, as importantly, the limited economic opportunities in the area are boosted by the high staff compliment at Cerebos, bringing income to at least 70 West Coast locals.