July the 14th, 2022 - The strange, moonlike island of Pag is famous for its salt production, not to mention its cheese, and after the island's salt museum opened its doors to visitors from at home and abroad, the Pag salt flats themselves are set to be made open to the public who are curious to see part of the production process.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, a morning spent on the Pag salt flats as part of the famous Pag Saltworks is a totally new and authentic experience for visitors to this rather bizarre looking island, reports HRT.

"We've finally seen the day we have been waiting for for decades now. Thirteen years ago, we opened the Salt Museum, and the Pag salt flats have always been closed off to the public," said Mate Donadic, a tour guide who is in charge of professional guidance and the story of the so-called ''white gold'' produced on the island.

"Pag's salt is collected the old-fashioned way. We have a small grate and with that the flower of the salt is collected. It must be calm weather in order to do this properly, there must not be a storm going on, there must not be rain, there must be absolutely ideal conditions,'' said Antonijo Bakac, an employee of Solana Pag (Pag Saltworks).

However, it is easier for tourists to take the salt from the carriage like this - they can take much as they want, and they can also see part of the production. The Pag salt flats were also visited by entrepreneurs and companies from the island of Pag who cultivate autochthonous wine varieties across the road from the saltworks.

"Pag Saltworks has been measuring the meteorological conditions for a hundred years now. This year, there was de facto no rain since March, meaning there was no significant amount of rain. Last year we produced 18,300 tonnes of fine salt, so this year we will hopefully have some opportunities for record production,'' said Josip Cepin, another employee of the Pag Saltworks.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated travel section.

As Morski writes on the 11th of April, 2019, Pag salt (Paška sol) has received protection at the EU level. This information has now been published officially and Pag salt has been entered into the register of Protected Geographical Indications (EU PGI), and Pag salt has earned its sought-after protection status throughout the European Union.

"Pag salt'' is sea salt obtained directly from the seawater of Pag bay, its shape that of small cubic crystal structures that are white in colour and contain minerals and trace elements. Most of the crystals are up to 1 mm in size, so 98 percent of all of the salt crystals manage to pass through a sieve with a mesh size of 1.3 mm. It has a concentrated salty taste without any bitterness.

The seawater from the bay of Pag is extremely clean and well-filtered because the bottom of Pag bay, from which it is obtained, is highly rich in shells which act as natural purifiers of the sea, meaning the seawater in that area has very low values ​​of heavy metals, which are at considerably lower levels than the average value of rest of the Mediterranean sea. In addition to that, Pag bay is located far from any areas in which industrial works are carried out, meaning that the sea is even more pure.

Croatia boasts a long and very rich tradition of production and preparation of various agricultural and food products that are characterised by certain special, unique qualities and traditional production methods, and now finally Pag's much loved salt has earned its protection at the highest level.

Although the Republic of Croatia is still the youngest member state of the European Union, it can be extremely proud of itself as it now has 22 different agricultural and food products with names that are now protected at the European Union level, either in the sense of having a protected destination of origin, or having a protected geographical indication. The EU currently has three such schemes which work to protect the names of quality agricultural products and foodstuffs.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for much more.

April 4, 2018 - Continuing our recap of the recent Gastronaut tour of Pag island, the last part of our series dedicated to white flowers of Pag town