SECOND GENERATION FilAm FINDS HER ROOTS (AND MAKES MONEY) IN SUPPORTING PHILIPPINE SEA SALT
Agriculture|March 2020
SALT is an important part of the dinner table. This condiment has become so common, it tends to get taken for granted. But what many people forget is that behind each salt grain lies not only a livelihood, but a culture.
YVETTE TAN
SECOND GENERATION FilAm FINDS HER ROOTS (AND MAKES MONEY) IN SUPPORTING PHILIPPINE SEA SALT

xroads (pronounced ‘crossroads’) Philippine Sea Salts, an American company that sells artisanal sea salt from Pangasinan and Bohol, was founded by Lennie Buenaflor DiCarlo, a second generation Filipino American, and her husband Anthony. Named after the Philippines’ geographic location as a crossroads for many countries and cultures, the 15-year-old business came about because DiCarlo herself was at a crossroads. Leaving a career in finance, the San Diego State University Economics graduate took up culinary studies at Le Cordon Bleu at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco.

ACCIDENTAL BUSINESS IDEA

The idea for xroads came from a visit to her mother’s hometown of Alaminos, Pangasinan, a long-time home to many salt farms. She brought back Pangasinan sea salt as pasalubong for her chef friends. “They started telling me ‘this is a great salt, I want more,’ and that’s when that light bulb moment came up and I said wow!, there is something here,” she says.

Research on the Philippine salt industry showed her that what was once a booming industry was now in severe decline. “It was 100% local that is Philippine and now… a majority of salt in the Philippines is imported from China.”

She realized that selling artisan sea salt from the Philippines in the US could not only help improve a dying industry, it could help uplift local salt farmers and preserve the local salt making culture as well. It was a very small plan-it was just one of those ‘Let’s see what I can do to [help the locals] by hiring them, paying them real wages’ plans,” she says.

This story is from the March 2020 edition of Agriculture.

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This story is from the March 2020 edition of Agriculture.

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