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More than 50% of the world's seaweed crop is produced on farms
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World production of commercially dried
seaweed is more than two million tons. |
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More than half of this production is
from seaweed farms; mostly in East Asia and Southeast Asia. |
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Seaweed farming is among the most
sustainable of aquaculture technologies. |
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Seaweed farming is a wholesome form of
occupation that provides economic opportunities in coastal areas where economic
opportunities are often limited. |
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Farming
of seaplants and harvesting of wild seaplants are important sources of
income to coastal peoples all over the world
This human face of seaplant industries is one the aspects of the
business that gives it fascination. Except for the large kelp harvesters
of southern California and Baja California most seaweeds are grown or
are harvested from wild stocks using very "hands-on"
techniques. Seaplant production tends to employ people in large numbers
and has a large multiplier effect in communities where is is
significant. In some areas such as the southernmost islands of the
Philippines seaplant farming and the seaplant trade is one of the
foundations of the whole economy.
The SuriaLink Farming
and Harvesting Community is being developed as an information source for this
important industry segment. We are striving to build our "real
time" GIS as a significant source of decision-critical information
to this community; we hope to help catalyze support for farm development
activities; and we are also lining up trade facilitation
facilities to help buyers and sellers to do
business with each other.
Production capacity
of the Farming and Harvesting Community is well illustrated by these
points:
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Farming of Kappaphycus
(cottonii) and Eucheuma (spinosum) is undertaken in several countries
including the Philippines, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Tanzania, Kiribati,
Fiji and Madagascar;
total market volume now exceeds 140,000 commercially dried tons per
annum at a value of over 70 M USD. |
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The
valuable Porphyra (Nori) industries of China,
North Korea, South Korea
and Japan are based on farming activities that
produce over 130,000 tons of harvest with a high average unit value
worth a total of over over 2.5 B USD.
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Manually harvested wild genera such as Chondrus, Furcellaria,
Gigartina, Iridaea, Mastocarpus and Tichocarpus
are also mainly produced as carrageenan raw materials; producing
countries include Argentina, Canada,
Chile, Denmark, France,
Ireland, Japan, Mexico,
Morocco, Portugal, North
Korea, South Korea, Spain,
Russia and the USA;
production exceeds 25,000 dry tons valued at more than 20 M USD.
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Most of the world's production of agar-bearing seaweeds is still
harvested from wild stands. Genera include Ahnfeltia,
Gelidium, Gelidiella and Gracilaria and Pterocladia.
Gracilaria farming is achieving important levels with about
50,00o tons of the ca. 90,000 ton total being farmed. Strides are also
being made on the farming of the highly valued bio-agar sources Gelidium
and Gelidiella. Producing countries include Argentina, Canada,
Chile, China, France,
India, Indonesia, Japan,
Madagascar, Mexico, Morocco,
Namibia, New Zealand,
Peru, Portugal, Russia,
South Africa, Spain,
Thailand, and the USA;
production exceeds 110,000 tons valued at more than 100 M USD. |
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Farming accounts for most of the production of brown seaweed genera such as Hizikia, Laminaria
and Undaria. These are important human food genera as well as
being sources raw materials for production of
biopolymers (alginates) and agriculture products. Producing
countries for farmed and wild crops of these genera include Argentina, Australia,
Canada, China, Chile,
France, Iceland,
Ireland, Japan, North
Korea, Norway, Portugal, South Africa,
South Korea, the UK,
and the USA . Cultivated (wild) production
is about 6,300 (1,200) tons of Hizikia; 673, 000 (58,000) tons of
Laminaria; and 102,000 (20,000) tons of Undaria.
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