Turkish salt producer to manufacture salts with active pharmaceutical ingredients

ISTANBUL / ANKARA

Turkish salt manufacturer Safir Tuz aims to reduce foreign dependence in the salt industry with its next-generation active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production plant in the central Turkish province of Kirikkale.

The facility, powered entirely by solar energy and equipped with mechanical vapor compression technology, will produce pharmaceutical-grade sodium chloride with extremely high purity. Its environmentally friendly infrastructure targets zero water consumption and utilizing 100% renewable energy sources.

The production site will play a key role in domestic API manufacturing, particularly for sodium chloride used in critical applications such as injectable solutions, eyedrops, and other sensitive medical formulations.

Raw salt sourced from rock salt mines in the nearby provinces of Cankiri and Kirikkale will be processed at the facility in accordance with the highest industry standards under Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) regulations.

With an annual production capacity of 140,000 tons, the facility will be one of the most advanced in its field across Europe.

It is also the first in Türkiye to produce pharmaceutical-grade salt in full compliance with GMP guidelines.

Safir Tuz Chair Nihat Ozpinar told Anadolu that the company has been a pioneer in the Turkish salt industry for over four decades, contributing significantly to the national economy.

“We decided to make our investments into our facility in Kirikkale in 2018, following President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s calls for investments — we promised to provide employment and we kept our promises,” he said.

Ozpinar said the firm exports half of their products, working with around 60 countries, adding that achieving steady growth in exports to Europe is one of its primary goals.

He stressed that Türkiye’s growing healthcare sector brought the need for APIs to the fore. “Türkiye depends 100% on imports for this raw material — we evaluated our production capacity to end this foreign dependence,” he said.

Ozpinar explained that active pharmaceutical salt has an extremely high purity level of above 99.9% as these are produced for use in sensitive formulae, such as injectable solutions, eyedrops, and the like.

“With active pharmaceutical grade salt, we will reach the markets of Africa, the Middle East, China, and Europe — we are fully confident in this goal,” he added.

He said the firm’s experience in traditional salt production, strong infrastructure, and high-quality systems is what made this new advance possible.