Market Opportunities

 

Market Landscape

 

The looming question for new regenerative ocean farmers is: Who’s going to buy all my seaweed? 

Seaweed harvesting once was a major industry in the United States. In the early 1900s, 1,500 workers produced 52 different products from kelp on the docks of San Diego. The industry died after WWII (due to over harvesting), but it’s proof that seaweed was once a tangible part of the U.S. coastal economy.

Fast forward to today and growth projections for farmed seaweed are strong. One recent study estimates the industry will grow to $92 billion by 2025 across a diverse range of markets. If you want to take a deeper dive, take a look at the Island Institute’s Edible Seaweed Market Analysis and the United Nations’ Global Status of Seaweed Production, Trade, and Utilization.

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Source:

Source: Global Market Insights

Source: Global Market Insights

Viable Near-term Markets

To separate wheat from chaff, GreenWave has identified four industries that we see as viable, shovel-ready sales channels for farmers: food, bioplastics, agricultural products, and blue carbon and nitrogen. We see these as the primary drivers of near-term market growth.

  • Food

    Like kale, locally grown sea greens (aka seaweed) began as a niche boutique food, sold as a specialty dish at high end restaurants. But recently it’s broken out of the niche market, with fast-casual restaurants like Sweetgreen, corporate cafeterias like Google, and community supported fisheries programs purchasing higher volumes.

    In parallel, domestically sourced kelp has broken into the ingredient market with companies like AKUA, Blue Evolution, and Atlantic Sea Farms sourcing for value-added products including kelp-based jerkies, pastas, and fermented products.

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  • Plastic Alternatives

    Globally the race is on to find alternatives to plastics - and seaweed has taken the lead. Even a few years ago, algae-based bioplastics were more of a trendy idea than reality, but they’ve now emerged as a major wholesale buyer of seaweed.

    For example, the company Notpla has rolled out a line of seaweed straws, utensils, and packaging materials. This is big news for regenerative ocean farmers, because it opens up a powerful new market for non-food grade crops.

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  • Agricultural Products

    Throughout New England and Europe, ocean farmers are selling their non-food grade “waste” kelp to land-based farmers to be used as fertilizer and feed. This is nothing new. For hundreds of years, farmers have used the nutrients and trace elements in marine plants to enrich the soil, increase yields and supplement livestock feeds.

    But now, climate mitigation has become a key driver of this sector. After years of field trials, Blue Ocean Barns and University of California Davis have shown that adding 1% of seaweed to fodder decreased methane production by 58%. Feed products are now on the market and their producers are searching for local sources of seaweed supply.

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  • Blue Carbon & Nitrogen

    Regenerative ocean farms offer the tangible environmental benefits of carbon and nitrogen sequestration. Increasingly, there is a recognition that farmers should be compensated for the role their farms play in protecting the environment, especially as the search for climate solutions intensifies. Carbon accreditation of seaweed by the international credit agencies is slowly moving forward, but, despite solid science, currently there is no blue carbon credit system that will benefit ocean farmers.

    However, numerous companies have approached GreenWave seeking ways to support kelp farming as part of their carbon offset programs. A pilot project is in the works that will pay farmers to plant kelp for carbon sequestration and data harvesting, so check back for updates.

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GreenWave’s Role

 

GreenWave works to open up new sales channels for small and medium-scale regenerative ocean farmers by leveraging our robust network of buyers. We’ve connected farmers with national processing companies, entrepreneurs making value-added products, corporate cafeterias, producers of bio-plastics, and retail outlets.

We also partner with value-added processors, wholesalers, and retailers to identify and overcome market barriers to ensure demand grows as GreenWave farmers scale.

 
 

Whole Leaf Strategy: Diversifying Markets

Think of this as a "whole leaf" strategy. Before crops are planted, every part of the plant is pre-destined for its appropriate market. For example, the youngest part of the leaf is turned into kelp noodles and the oldest is turned into compost and bioplastic straws.

 
 
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Kelp Burger- Credit AKUA.jpg

Food

→ Value-added
→ Ingredients

straw.png

Bio-Plastics

→ Straws
→ Packaging

Agriculture

→ Fertilizer
→ Compost

 

Long-term Markets

One of the powers of seaweed is that it has so many uses. It’s the soy of the sea without all the downsides. But the wide range of potential markets makes the space confusing for farmers and entrepreneurs. Based on our work in the market innovation space, we see some sectors as too uncertain to be economically viable at this stage.

Farming kelp for biofuel, for example, is decades off. And while industries such as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals use seaweeds in a range of products, they often rely on varieties that are not native to U.S. waters or grown in land-based tank systems, neither of which make sense for GreenWave’s farming network.

Want to learn more?

Learn more about Our Programs.

Check out Seaweed Source.

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