A salt production factory opened yesterday in Haa Alifu atoll Dhidhdhoo and has begun exporting to Japan.
A Maldivian company, M Deep Investment, in partnership with a Japanese company, has opened a factory in Dhidhdhoo that produces cooking salt.
Dhidhdhoo Council President Abdullah Rasheed, told Mihaaru News today that the factory was opened in collaboration between the island council and a Japanese company. He said that work on building the factory began about a year ago, with arrangements for the council to receive land rent and for local residents to get employment opportunities.
"This is a facility opened by a Japanese company that showed interest in one of the plots of land made available by the council for investment," he said.
Rasheed said that before building this factory, the company had collected salt from the island's sea, taken it to Japan, and conducted tests.
"This is something not yet done in Maldives. Since 99 percent of the Maldives is ocean, the Japanese company representatives discussed with us that this could be a viable venture during their visit here. They took salt samples to Japan for testing and confirmed it was of very high quality," he said.
According to Rasheed, production at the factory has already begun. He said that the salt produced there will currently be marketed to Japan and to resorts in Maldives.