Speaker

Interview:

1) How can we stimulate people in the US to eat (more) seaweeds?

We see progress in the growing number of SKU’s that are available through retail channels. 15 years ago, there were a few products from Asia, and a broad line of dried products from Maine Coast Sea Vegetables available nationally. Today there are many more Asian companies with products on the shelves in US retailers.  More US and Canadian companies now have products, and several EU companies are selling here.

Retail space is incredibly expensive. Seaweed gaining more shelf space is a sign of increasing consumer demand. Growth has been and will continue to be slower than we would like. To stimulate consumer growth, North American producers must continue to develop products that appeal to a broad segment of the North American palate. Asian producers increased North American sales in the 2010’s but these sales were from consumers trying the products for the first time. Adoption by consumers was low because the products were not designed with North American palates in mind. They were Asian products designed for Asian palates with labels translated into English. The Asian producers realized they were having adoption issues and opened product development offices in Canada and the US to begin the process of developing new, more appealing products for North America.  

The growth in sales of Kale as a product in the US is instructive. Introduced into North America in the late 1800’s, Kale became very popular in the 2010’s mostly on the back of well thought out PR campaigns focusing on nutrition and utilizing a multi-pronged approach including support of the decade‘s biggest celebrities. Spending money on consumer marketing without easy access by consumers to the product will not result in increased sales. Kale was able to expand its market rapidly because farmers could easily switch to kale allowing supply to keep up with demand. Kelp can be the new Kale if the chicken and egg challenge of demand and supply can be overcome.

2) What needs to be done to stimulate the development of a strong North American seaweed industry? 

Industries are only strong and resilient when they are profitable and growing. This easy answer belies the difficulty in achieving profitability and encouraging more entrants. Profitability and industry growth in North America will only come with scale, more efficient means of farming and processing, and increased demand for seaweed.

Note that scaling harvests does not necessarily mean all farms need to be large. The model in Maine of fisherman/farmer operated farms produced 650 tons for Atlantic Seafarms this year. Tremendous growth achieved through the effort of 40 family farms. Cascadia Seaweed in British Columbia is pursuing a similar growth approach partnering with First Nation communities.

Large farms will also play a significant role in harvest growth. For large farms to be profitable, lower priced and more reliable sources of seed are needed, and automated economically produced seeding and harvesting equipment needs to be developed and adopted. 

Processing capacity is severely limited in North America.  Processors are few and far between, spread over an exceedingly large geography. Relative to Asia, the processing facilities are small, and in some cases behind in technology.

Those are the challenges. Here are some concrete steps the industry and stakeholders can take to mitigate those challenges.

Production growth

Reduce the time required to get to a yes or no on permit applications. The time currently required is stifling not only farmers, but investment. It is very difficult to attract investment to this industry with such a long period of permitting uncertainty. Ensure that the permit tenure is greater than 10 years. This will go a long way towards reducing regulatory risk and inducing more investment. Investment and growth occur in areas where there is regulatory certainty and efficiency of permitting processes. The only way to achieve both is to organize and engage with politicians and regulators. Improving public acceptance of farming will provide policy makers with the space to make the changes necessary for farm and production growth and should not be overlooked.

Improve nursery practices to lower costs, increase production, and improve reliability. “Hatchery (Nursery) is destiny” was the best advice I was given by my mentor, an experienced fish farmer. This can be accomplished by taking an operational or business approach to nurseries rather than an academic approach. Most nurseries, though not all, are significantly underperforming the best North American nurseries and all are far underperforming the average Korean nursery.

Advocate for regulations that will enable strain selection and work to direct public, NGO, and private funds to this critical task. Without better performing nurseries and strain selection to increase yield per meter of line, North American industry profitability will be very difficult to achieve.

Adopt automation on the farm wherever possible to lower labor costs and increase capacity to seed and harvest. I am greatly encouraged by publicly and privately funded projects in the EU that are developing economical automation technologies. Seeding technology and farm designs are in trial that enable over 50 miles of line to be seeded, and over 60,000 lbs. to be harvested from a farm in an 8-hour day.

3) What will be the main seaweed application in the USA in 2030?

Seaweed food products will always be an important part of the North American farmed seaweed industry. Commodities such as animal feed, bio stimulants, feed stocks for alternatives to petroleum-based products will play an increasingly role due to the unique attributes they bring to the industries they serve, and the ability to create these commodities without the need to convert land or fresh water. If I had to predict now what sector will absorb the most farmed seaweed in 2030, it will be feed, followed by bio stimulants. These are huge industries that can absorb significant amounts seaweed. In the end, industry growth and resiliency will be driven by novel products displacing higher input terrestrially produced commodities. On going research and development efforts funded by private companies, governments, and NGO’s are generating a pipeline of products for other industry sectors that could become game changers is very encouraging.