Cornish Sea Salt, part of Provenance Brands, has been awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade after a growth of 552 per cent in exports of its natural, mineral-rich sea salt.

The award is only given to British businesses who excel at one of the following categories: international trade, innovation, sustainable development or promoting opportunities for social mobility. They are the highest official UK awards for British businesses and applicants must demonstrate an outstanding three year record with no ‘dips’ or ‘slumps’ in export figures.

In 2012, the Cornish Sea Salt, which is based at Porthkerris on the Lizard peninsular, realised that global interest in the product was potentially limitless and began to look beyond the UK, employing two export sales managers to develop new markets. The total number of export countries has now reached 33.

A greater understanding of the health benefits of sea salt in Scandinavia and Sweden makes Cornish Sea Salt one of the highest selling salt products in some of their top supermarkets. Other export hubs include the United Emirates and the Gulf, Asia and Australia, and work has already begun to supply Cornish Sea Salt into Chinese supermarkets after the state monopoly ends in 2017.

Cornish Sea Salt is a part of the Provenance Brands family which includes the internationally popular Great British Crisp Company and the newest member of the group: Living Sea Therapy, a marine skin care range which is launching in May and has similar international ambitions.

Mark Sullivan, chairman of Provenance Brands, said: “We’re delighted that Cornish Sea Salt has won the Queen’s Award for International Trade for Outstanding Short Term Growth in Overseas Sales. It is a testament to our sales director Suzanne Skerry and her internal export team’s highly strategic growth campaign, which has seen overseas sales grow by 552 per cent in the last three years.

"Export sales only began in 2012 and the proportion of sales now contribute to 30 per cent of turnover. Our growth is credited to working closely with distributors, harnessing the growing appetite for a quality British product internationally and the desire to use a healthy salt. Cornish Sea Salt is well on course to being known as the best British Sea Salt internationally.

"As a group of brands, we understand the importance of opening up business to an international platform and the success of Cornish Sea Salt overseas proves this. Long may we continue flying the British flag internationally.”

Back in the UK, the company continues to expand both in terms of wholesale, which has seen a 30 per cent increase on last year, and more recently as an ingredient in food manufacturing. The pressure to reduce salt content in ready meals means that supermarkets are turning to healthier salts. Cornish Sea Salt is now being sold to cheese manufacturers, and is used in ice cream, desserts, meat and fish dishes.