Pakistan’s Pink Salt

Salt is rarely considered a matter of national puffery. But in Pakistan, Himalayan pink salt has been the subject of parliamentary debates, editorials and trending hashtags. And Pakistanis want you to know one thing: Upmarket salt is Pakistani.

In the U.S., Himalayan pink salt has become popular in a variety of uses, from cooking to spa treatments. You can even buy lamps made from it. But its origins are rarely highlighted or even mentioned on products — perhaps because Pakistan, where most of this salt comes from, isn’t a place one associates with pink salt. Instead, the salt is often marketed as coming from some amorphous Himalayan mountain, perhaps an icy glacier.

A pile of rough-hewn pink Himalayan salt cubes.Diaa Hadid/NPR

But now, because of a convergence of political tensions with India and social media outrage, salt industry advocates say they’re poised to pass legislation that will trademark Himalayan pink salt as Pakistani.

“This is a unique product,” said Sen. Shibli Faraz, the leader of the Senate, who has repeatedly raised the issue in Pakistan’s Parliament. “It would be also important to trademark it as a Pakistani product.”