Current Status of the Seaweed Industry

Global Seaweed

If you walk into a local grocery store today, there is a much higher chance that you will find some type of seaweed product than there was 20, 10, or even 5 years ago. This is in part due to the exponential growth of the global seaweed industry over the past 25 years. Seaweed production first began to ramp up in East Asian and Southeast Asian nations including China, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines during the late 20th century.

The rapid growth of the seaweed industry occurred from the 1970s onward and was driven by high demand for farmed seaweed. This demand came out of a need for fast-growing, nutritious food in East Asia (particularly China) and a pre-existing deep, cultural history of seaweed use in East Asian cuisine as well as pressure on wild populations from overharvest. The growth of the industry was particularly prominent in China where seaweed farming was supported by research and government institutions. Commercialization of the chemical properties of seaweed (such as its use as a thickening and/or stabilizing agent in food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals) also played a significant role in the growth of seaweed aquaculture, particularly in Indonesia and the Philippines where a large portion of farmed seaweed is processed for its extracts. 

Today, seaweed production has reached 36.17 million metric tonnes (wet weight) with 35 million of those metric tonnes coming from aquaculture (97 percent). China is the world’s leading producer of seaweed by over 10 million metric tonnes and is responsible for nearly 60 percent of farmed seaweed production as of 2020. Other nations with significant contributions to the global seaweed market include Indonesia, South Korea, the Philippines, and North Korea. The only non-East Asian and Southeast Asian nations breaking the top 10 seaweed producers as of 2020 were Tanzania, Russia, and Chile. Combined, these three nations produced 0.13 million metric tons of seaweed (less than 1 percent of global seaweed landings) in 2020.

Eight species made up 93.7 percent of global seaweed landings in 2020, and all of these species were either brown or red algae. Although kelp farming is what we most commonly think of in the United States when we hear “seaweed aquaculture,” globally, more red seaweeds are grown by volume than kelps (53 percent red seaweeds compared to 47 percent brown seaweeds including kelp). While the brown seaweeds are commonly processed for human consumption directly as Kombu or Wakame, red seaweeds are often processed to extract carrageenan and agar which may be added to food or other products during subsequent production processes. However, some red seaweeds are eaten directly– like Nori– and some extracts– like alginate– come from brown seaweeds.

America refers to both North and South America. The United States produces  less than 0.1% of global seaweed.

Image credit: Jaclyn Robidoux with data from FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture 

However, even with rapidly growing seaweed aquaculture production in the United States, the industry here still represents less than 0.01 percent of the global seaweed supply.

Maine Seaweed

Maine was the first state to begin farming seaweed in the US, although the wild harvested seaweed industry here existed before that with companies including SOURCE, Inc. and Maine Coast Sea Vegetables. In 1995-1996, an early seaweed aquaculture operation was established in Eastport, Maine by Coastal Plantations Inc. in partnership with the University of Connecticut’s Yarish Lab. Subsequent experimental seaweed farming continued in Maine for nearly 15 years before commercial seaweed aquaculture began in 2010. Ocean Approved (now Atlantic Sea Farms) was the first commercial seaweed farm to open and continues to be the largest seaweed aquaculture company in the nation.

Today, over 40 seaweed farms exist along the Maine coast and together they produce ~1 million wet pounds of seaweed– nearly all kelp. Notably, many of Maine’s seaweed farmers are also commercial fishermen, lobstermen, shellfish farmers, and marine business owners, who are using seaweed to diversify their incomes on the working waterfront. Some of these farms operate as small businesses that partner with larger companies like Atlantic Sea Farms to process, market, and sell their raw product. Meanwhile, other farms have created their own seaweed brands and products that they process and sell to consumers themselves. 

A variety of Maine seaweed products from different companies (wild harvest and farmed)

Springtide Seaweed

Cup of Sea

Image credits: SoPo Seafood, Maine Coast Sea Vegetables, Maine Made, Lei Marasovich (Farmers Footprint), Springtide Seaweed, Dulse & Rugosa, Sea Made, SOURCE Micronutrients, Nor-Cal Soil Builders, Maine Made