There is not only sugar in Mauritius. There is...also the salt. It's true they are not as extensive as the sugar cane plantations, but the salt marshes of the island are enough to supply the whole country. These are rural farming with undeveloped but efficient techniques.

The saline and salt workers of Tamarin have always been attractive issues for both amateurs and professional photographers. Situated along the road to the south in Tamarin, these salt marshes inevitably catch one's eyes. These squared ponds are also known as salt marshes and its cobblestones layout are attractive patterns. This visual effect is increased tenfold by the reflection of the mechanism in the very water of the marshes.
But this geometrical picture is depicted in a different way, often with nostalgic feelings when the salt workers relate. Wearing wide-brimmed hats, rubber boots and equipped with gloves, shovels and vats, these women perpetuate an old ritual for nearly two centuries since we have started to produce salt on the island.
In Mauritius, the salt industry has not changed much since its initial production. Sea water is pumped and then discharged into several basins. It is a salted solution known as brine. The brine is then placed from one vat to another to evaporate and to eventually crystallize the salt. This whitish sediment of freshly crystallized salt is called the fleur de sel (the best quality unrefined salt).

5000 tons annually

The workers shovel the salt and put it in basins. The harvest is stored in a nearby building, prior its gathering. This is how the four salt marshes in the country produce at around 5000 tons of salt per year. Enough to supply the entire country. Before ending up in salt shaker, this gross product or unrefined salt is first refined. The "Raffinerie de l'ouest" fulfills this task.
While it is primarily used in kitchen, the salt is also used in other non-culinary industrial process, such as cleaning the vat of the sugar distillation, for example.
The production of salt, in this way, depends on the climate. It is slowed down by the rain and by other factors, notably by the climatic conditions, which implies that the peak season runs from October to January and the rest of the months are the low ones.
It's during the peak season that one most often spots the salt workers. They work early in the morning or yet, in the afternoon. So hard is their task that the salt workers get off with a smile. A snap that many photographers have taken. An image that has lived through time in this rapidly metamorphosed landscape by new constructions of the villas in the vicinity.