|
|
 |
 |
|
List
of countries & territories with coastline &
reported seaplants |
|
|
How big is the world
seaplant market?
.... over 2 M tons
worth 8 billion+ USDollars/annum
|
We are using market-size estimates
made by scientists. Good market statistics are essentially
unavailable and scientists tend to be a conservative lot who
only report numbers in which they have some confidence.
Consequently most seaweed market are probably gross under
estimates.
Indergaard & Jensen (1991) estimated that the mid 1980’s.market
for seaweed and seaweed gums could be summarized as follows: |
|
|
Product
|
Value (Million USD/yr) |
Production (tons dry
weight/yr) |
Seaplants
used
(tons wet
weight/yr) |
| Alginates
|
230
|
27,000
|
500,000
|
| Agar
|
160
|
11,000
|
180,000
|
| Carrageenans
|
100
|
15,500
|
250,000
|
| Kelp
meal
|
5
|
10,000
|
50,000
|
| Maërl
|
10
|
510,000
|
550,000
|
| Liquid
Extracts
|
5
|
1,000
|
10,000
|
| Nori
|
1,800
|
40,000
|
400,000
|
| Wakame
|
600
|
20,000
|
300,000
|
| Kombu
|
600
|
300,000
|
1,300,000
|
|
TOTAL
|
3,510
|
934,500
|
3,540,000
|
|
|
>>>see
production by country<<<
>>>see production by
genus<<<
|
|
The
French 1996 estimates by Perez et al. estimate
approximately double the level of production shown above and
estimate cash values
as follows:
|
|
|
Market
Segment
|
Volume (M tons wet
weight/yr) |
Share
(%) |
| Food
staple
|
3.6 |
47 |
| Food
gums
|
3.2
|
43
|
| Maerl
|
0.5
|
7
|
Others
(spa,
cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, medicines, feed,
agriculture)
|
0.2
|
3
|
|
TOTAL
|
7.5
|
100
|
|
|
Product
|
Value (Billion USD/yr) |
| Porphyra
|
2.85
|
| Laminaria
|
2.00
|
| Undaria
|
1.14
|
| Others
|
0.20
|
| Food
gums
|
0.86
|
| Kelp
meal
|
0.86
|
| Maerl
|
~0.1
|
|
TOTAL
|
8.01
|
|
|
|
|
|
