The SuriaLink Concept

SuriaLink is an international alliance of seaplant professionals who strive to offer cost-effective, decision-critical information to the seaplant industry. We are developing as a cost effective medium through which people with professional and business interests in the commercial seaplant trade can collaborate in building an accurate, timely source of comprehensive decision-critical business information pertaining to technology, prices, crop conditions, innovations market trends and other essentials of seaplant value chains. Read about our Associates Program to learn more.

Our industry has a global harvest of at least two million tons worth more than 7 billion US dollars annually. Initially SuriaLink is focusing on the class of seaplants most commonly known as seaweeds but also known as sea vegetables or macrophytic marine algae. More than 200 species of seaweeds are commercially utilised. Seaweeds are in all 5 of the world's oceans and grow in more than 200 countries and territories. The world seaweed harvest is over two million commercially dry tons/yr valued at over 7.25 billion USD

The seaplant marketplace is fragmented, inefficient and opaque; SuriaLink is changing this. There is a need for the services that SuriaLink offers because seaplant markets lack transparency. Seaplant markets are inefficient due to factors such as a global marketplace fragmented by geography, language and culture - poor utilisation of industry expertise and talent - an abundance of erroneous and inaccurate information - and poor access for most industry "players" to such accurate information & knowledge as is available.

A major function of SuriaLink is to connect underutilized expertise to the people who need it. Many experienced and highly qualified industry professionals are "prematurely retired" or unable to obtain as much work and as much funding as they need to pursue their vocation. Industry support for R&D has dwindled; largely due to difficulty in maintaining proprietary rights over the results [e.g. in seaweed farm development]. The industry is also tending toward ever greater fragmentation as small to medium sized businesses prove appropriate for the production of seaweed, sea vegetables and seaplant products. The industry has an urgent need for the kind of talent and expertise that is currently under-utilised. SuriaLink.com is being developed as a medium through which such expertise can be efficiently and cost-effectively made available to the businesses that need it.

SuriaLink is a commercial exchange among separate but related communities of interest
Although conventional exchanges involving money are essential to our survival we also utilise other media of exchange such as accepting "content" in lieu of cash... and even providing you with the chance to make a few bucks on your contributions if we get enough sales and enough "hits". Our commercial philosophy is well described by Paul Lutus when he writes:

“Economic principles lie behind many more human activities than most of us realize. We are almost constantly exchanging something for something else. Many economic transactions don't involve money. In traditional societies, and sometimes even [the American] one, people trade using favors, influence, even pure ideas, instead of money. Sometimes money is not the best way to convey value. And sometimes money is so completely inappropriate that it destroys the transaction..." 
From Paul Lutus in explaining Careware. For more click the spider and visit his site