Himalayan pink salt: a game changer for our economy

Recently Pakistan's Himalayan Pink Salt has empowered a Brazilian soap brand to win international award in Belgium. The Brazilian innovation was an aplomb collaboration between Brazilian and Belgian companies in their pursuit of innovation and entrepreneurship in the health and cosmetics sectors.

Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan, per media reports, has rightly observed that Himalayan Pink Salt is a natural treasure symbolising Pakistan's economic potential. Chemically, the recalcitrant behaviour of Himalayan Pink Salt makes it different from traditional table salt not only because of its colour and purity but also the presence of more than eighty trace minerals. Its unique pink colour indicates a prodigious mineral composition of iron, magnesium, potassium and calcium inherently beneficial for human health and wellbeing. With the advancement of technology and unprecedented developments in the field of AI, the erudite culture of industrial innovation is increasingly linking the demand and supply matrices of an economy with natural resource-based solutions. This dimension creates a great opportunity for Pakistan's economy. People are increasingly becoming health conscious, and prefer natural resource-based health solutions to overly processed artificial cosmetics and health products. The advancement in AI is rapidly redefining the demand and supply trends in the cosmetics and health sectors. Such ubiquitous trends require innovation in industries where Pakistan has got comparative advantage in such raw materials as Himalayan Pink Salt.

The case study of the Brazilian soap, as an innovation for the cosmetics industry and its demand-led preference over traditional soaps, is a clear testament to how Pakistani companies can enter joint ventures with the South American and European companies. These developments indicate that the demand of Pakistan's Himalayan Pink Salt will drastically increase in future as more innovations take place. This stage must be a point of departure from the fatuous thinking of just mining Himalayan Pink Salt and supplying it to the world on paltry rates. The chambers of commerce and industry all over Pakistan need to rethink how various businesses associated with cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals can learn lessons from the recent Brazilian innovation.

In a 2018 research paper titled 'Innovation in Natural Resource-based industries: a pathway to development?', Allan, et al analyse a quixotic centrality of innovation and technological change for economic growth. Based on innovation in Natural Resource-based industries (NRBIs), they also discuss the relationship between natural resources and development. For future innovation prospects, they highlight four issues. (1) How the interplay between Natural Resource Knowledge Idiosyncrasy (NKI) and innovation can give rise to new path creation in natural resources? NKI refers to the qualitative diversity of geological and ecological conditions influencing innovation in NRBIs. (2) There is a need to link sustainability transition using tech-driven sectors in the Global North and natural resources in the Global South. (3) Maintaining the innovation momentum during NRBIs' obfuscating boom and bust cycles needs to be understood in a way that could inform future public policy. And (4) How can knowledge bases be redeployed in other industries to encourage innovation activities and macroeconomy?

The case study of the Brazilian soap using Himalayan Pink Salt is a perfect example of Allan, et al's second argument stressing the need to connect sustainability transition through industrial collaboration between the tech-driven sectors of the Global North and abundant natural resources in the Global South. However, the case of the Brazilian soap is a hybrid model of innovation where a Brazilian company imported Himalayan Pink Salt from Pakistan and then combined it with the technology of a European company. The idea was perhaps so abstruse for Pakistani companies that none of them could come forward to have this kind of business collaboration with a tech-driven company of the Global North. Brazil, another country from the Global South, took advantage of this situation and succeeded in winning the international award through innovation.

Another lesson is that the business prospects of Himalayan Pink Salt are huge. It is a natural treasure frequently used for maintaining pH balance, promoting respiratory functions, curing digestion problems, improving skin quality, lessening inflammation, keeping away infections and helping good sleep. These benefits revolve around so many industrial and business sectors requiring necessary innovations. Bottled water, soaps, toothpastes, culinary, cattle feed and skin products remain some of the main products where the Himalayan Pink Salt can be used as a brand. That means the presence of Himalayan Pink Salt can help Pakistani companies develop their indigenous business brands when entering in JVs with other companies. The traditional economic arguments stressing sound macroeconomic management, prudent exchange rate policy, good governance and institutional quality are valid but insufficient in ensuring the growth of an economy.

The analysis suggests that Pakistani pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cosmetics companies must come forward and start collaboration with tech-driven companies from the Global North using Himalayan Pink salt as a raw material. Pakistani companies need to understand innovation as a business process, and it is possible when they practically get into joint ventures with the companies of the Global North. The spillover effect of such JVs will gradually develop capacity and culture in Pakistani companies to independently suggest innovation-based solutions using Himalayan Pink Salt in future. There must be an aggressive campaign highlighting the significance not only of the Himalayan Pink Salt but also the entire Salt Range as a geological marvel.

Home to all rock formations of various geological ages, the Salt Range in Pakistan is geologically the world's capital. It needs to be marketed that Pakistan is home to such a great health treasure in the form of Himalayan Pink Salt. However, Pakistani companies will have to be aware of the challenges highlighted by Allan et al. Simply extracting the salt in situ will transform it into a Dutch Disease as is the current obdurate case. Embarking on innovation through JVs with the companies in the Global North can prove to be a game changer for Pakistan's economy as the country has an absolute advantage in the form of abundant salt resources. It is innovation that will increase the Salt's productivity, usage, branding and production all over the world while promoting it as a Pakistani product symbolising health and wellbeing.