Company History
Khoisan Trading Company (Pty) Ltd was established in 1994 and is owned and managed by the Schrauwen family. Khoisan produces a mineral rich, pure natural unrefined sea salt which is hand harvested in the traditional manner.
It all started in 1991 when Yntze Schrauwen, of the Velddrif Salt Works, designed and laid out the pilot scheme for the salt pans. After three years of extensive research and planning he successfully achieved results when the first sea salt crystals were harvested.
Initially his wife, Joan Schrauwen, packaged these sea salt crystals for sale in her Velddrif Gallery and as a result of the demand for Khoisan Sea Salt their daughter, Britt Geach, ventured further and reached a wider distribution by trading at craft markets and farm stalls. The business grew further and expanded into small and the larger retail stores. At the inspiration provided by Joan, a flavoured range of Sea Salt was introduced in addition to the natural sea salt range which has also proven to be successful.
Khoisan Trading Co. (Pty) Ltd employs people exclusively from the local community which is an ongoing investment and upliftment in an area which is suffering economically due to cutbacks in fishing permits. At Khoisan we take our responsibilities for the welfare and development of our employees seriously and in this regard the company works closely with Fair Trade Associates who ensure that employees are treated fairly e.g. pension, furthering employees education, financial assistance with driver’s licences as well as assisting with employees’ children’s school fees.
Since 1996 the business and demand for its products has grown to such an extent that the Khoisan factory has had to move to larger premises several times. Briefly, the Factory process consists of sieving the sea salt from the pans, drying, cleaning, adding herbs for flavoured varieties, packaging, labelling and packing into boxes for distribution to retailers and distributors. In addition, Khoisan supplies natural sea salt in bulk to the wholesale trade for repacking.
Khoisan Sea Salt is the only hand-harvested natural unrefined sea salt in South Africa and produces certified SABS 1st Grade edible sea salt, flavoured sea salt, bath salts and Gypsum which is distributed locally and internationally.