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Exportadora de Sal S.A. (abbreviated as ESSA) is a company dedicated to salt production through solar evaporation of sea water in the Ojo de Liebre Lagoon, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Founded in 1954 by American shipping businessman
Daniel K. Ludwig Daniel Keith Ludwig (June 24, 1897 – August 27, 1992) was an American shipping businessman, who was also involved in many other industries. He pioneered the construction of super tankers in Japan, founded Exportadora de Sal, SA in Mexico and de ...
, it is currently partially owned by the Mexican government and Mitsubishi. It is one of the largest sea-salt extraction and processing operations in the world.


History

Rudimentary extraction of the natural salt deposits formed by the flooding and subsequent evaporation of the low parts of the
Ojo de Liebre Lagoon Ojo de Liebre Lagoon (also known as Scammon's Lagoon), translated into English as "hare eye lagoon", is a coastal lagoon located in Mulegé Municipality near the town of Guerrero Negro in the northwestern Baja California Sur state of Mexico. I ...
(also known as Scammon's Lagoon) had been ongoing for several decades. American shipping magnate Daniel K. Ludwig obtained a concession from the Mexican government, formally starting the company on April 7, 1954. That date is also the official founding date of the town of
Guerrero Negro Guerrero Negro is the largest town located in the municipality of Mulegé in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur (BCS). It had a population of 14,316 in the 2015 census. The town is served by Guerrero Negro Airport. Whale Festival The t ...
, which was created to house workers for the new company and grew around it. Ludwig bought the interest of British companies who were the first to exploit the saltworks commercially, and by 1963 he had invested US$63 million, reaching an annual salt production output of in the 1970s. The project became the largest
salt works A salt evaporation pond is a shallow artificial salt pan designed to extract salts from sea water or other brines. The Salt pans are shallow and large of size because it will be easier for sunlight to travel and reach the sea water. Natural s ...
facility in the world and included the construction of a deep-water port to ship the salt in Puerto Morro Redondo, Cedros Island. The company diked the shallow tidal flats around Ojo de Liebre lagoon, creating multiple artificial evaporating ponds, eventually covering an area of about . In the 1960s Japanese corporation
Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...
became the main customer of ESSA and purchased the entire company in 1973 for US$18 million, taking over operations. It is possible that Ludwig's decision to sell was motivated by rumors of a potential expropriation of the company by the centralist government of President Luis Echeverría (1970-1976). In 1976 a new mining law forced Mitsubishi to sell 26% of its stock to the Mexican government, after it had previously sold 25%. Since then ESSA has been jointly owned by the Mexican government (51%) and Mitsubishi (49%), with the company holding exclusive rights to sell the salt. As of 2014 Exportadora de Sal S.A. was referred as the largest salt works, salt producer and exporter in the world, with an yearly output of 8 million tons, constituting around half of Japan's salt imports. Salt exported by ESSA is mainly used in the chemical industry for the production of caustic soda, chlorine and sodium carbonate. After Gregorio Cavazos Rodríguez quit as ESSA's general director in March 2022, serving in the role for a year, Raúl Franco Morones was named director.


Operations

Sea water is pumped into the collection ponds for initial evaporation, with the brine solution moved afterwards to crystallization ponds to finish drying up. The resulting mineral salt is transported in large dumping trucks to Chaparrito Port near Guerrero Negro to be cleaned and loaded into barges. These barges can carry up to of salt to Morro Redondo, where it is inspected, stored and finally exported in ocean-going vessels.


Corruption controversies

Jorge Humberto López Portillo, general director of ESSA from July 2013 to December 2014, was prosecuted for irregularities such as purchasing a new barge for US$27.2 million and signing 30-year contracts with Packsys for residual brine treatment, both actions taken without administrative committee authorization. Packsys sued for breach of contract, but ESSA, represented by law firm O'Melveny, got the case dismissed. López Portillo was banned from civil service for ten years although he contested this and claimed innocence and political persecution. Fellow Institutional Revolutionary Party member Abel Salgado Peña formally requested that López Portillo be expelled from the party due to the accusations of corruption. In January 2019 Nonato Antonio Avilés Rocha was named by President
Andres Manuel López Obrador Andres or Andrés may refer to: *Andres, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Will County, Illinois, US *Andres, Pas-de-Calais, a commune in Pas-de-Calais, France *Andres (name) *Hurricane Andres * "Andres" (song), a 1994 song by L7 See also ...
as ESSA's general director. Avilés Rocha quit in January 2021, after it was found that he gave contracts to companies owned by his cousins and nephews, increased executive salaries above approved limits, signed off unjustified expenses and paid for services that were not provided. Irregular salt sales were also detected.


Environmental impact

In 1994, seeking to increase its production output, ESSA proposed an expansion of its facilities into the nearby
San Ignacio Lagoon San Ignacio Lagoon (Laguna San Ignacio) is a lagoon located in Mulegé Municipality of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur, 59 kilometers (37 mi) from San Ignacio, Mexico, and Highway 1. It is one of the winter sanctuaries of the eastern ...
which is part of El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve, a whale and migratory bird sanctuary. After
Serge Dedina Serge Dedina is the current mayor of Imperial Beach, California and Executive Director of Wildcoast, a non-profit environmentalist group. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected 18th Mayor of Imperial Beach in 2014. Personal life Dedi ...
, founder of
Wildcoast Wildcoast (stylized ''WiLDCOAST'') is an international non-profit environmental organization that conserves coastal and marine ecosystems and wildlife. Headquartered in Imperial Beach, California, Wildcoast established a Mexican division in 2007, ...
, exposed these plans, a opposition campaign was carried out by prominent intellectuals, artists, and several NGOs such as the Natural Resources Defense Council in the United States and the Group of 100 in Mexico. Poet and activist
Homero Aridjis Homero Aridjis (born April 6, 1940) is a Mexican poet, novelist, environmental activist, journalist and diplomat known for his rich imagination, poetry of lyrical beauty, and ethical independence. Family and early life Aridjis was born in Contepe ...
, leader of the Group of 100, denounced the potential impact of the project, such as salinity reduction due to the extraction of 462 million metric tons of water from the lagoon, affecting plant and animal life. The opposition effort was successful, culminating with Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo announcing in March 2000 the abandonment of the project. In 1998 CorpWatch accused Mitsubishi of greenwashing due to "their ongoing public relations initiative to convince the world that it is environmentally benign, as well as socially and economically desirable to establish the largest industrial salt evaporation facility in the world in a lagoon that is the last pristine calving ground of the California gray whale". In 1999 conservation groups including
Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...
Mexico submitted a formal accusation to the Mexican government against ESSA for environmental law violations. The increased death of green sea turtles ('' Chelonia mydas)'' at Ojo de Liebre lagoon has been potentially linked to the dumping of bitterns by ESSA. A dispute concerning the disposal of the residual brine solution arose between ESSA, local people and environmental activists. Following exhortations from the Mexican Congress, in 2019 the company invested 200 million pesos in a new pumping system to dispose of the residual brine.


References


External links


Mitsubishi's corporate video about ESSA
{{Mitsubishi Group Mexican companies established in 1954 Mitsubishi companies Salt production Companies based in Baja California Sur