Vancouver Island company harvests natural sea salt from B.C. waters

WATCH: Vancouver Island Salt Co. boils the natural salt out of our ocean and markets it, in eclectic flavours. Kylie Stanton talks to the B.C. entrepreneurs.

With more than 25,000 kilometres of coastline, there is no shortage of seawater available in B.C. One Vancouver Island company is hoping to capitalize on it.

The Vancouver Island Salt Co. is the first sea salt hand harvester in the country, extracting the mineral from local waters.

“Basically we’re professional water boilers,” says founder Andrew Shepherd, although the extraction process is much more complicated than that.

The key is when and where it’s harvested. High tide at a place like Cherry Point kicks up minerals in the water, like iron and magnesium. Nothing else is added.

“People are really looking for natural salt products and in Canada we have all these laws that force mine salts to have things added to them,” says Shepherd. “With sea salt, there’s no legislation around it so we’re allowed to keep it natural.”

The salt is being sold across Canada and thanks to a recent $100,000 grant, new markets are on the horizon.

“We want to put salt in the minds of people when they think about Canada, much the same way maple syrup or poutine is,” says Shepherd.

“We’re looking to go global as a company.”

-with files from Kylie Stanton