By www.thewest.com.au
The Australian seaweed industry is making waves, with expansion into a $100 million industry in the next five years. And Geographe Bay-based Indian Ocean Sea Vegetables is hoping to be a big part of that growth.
Investors are lining up to get involved in seaweed to reduce emissions, improve ocean health, and create jobs in regional areas.
Australian Seaweed Institute chief executive Jo Kelly said the global seaweed market was projected to be worth $30 billion by 2025.
“Australia has no commercial-scale seaweed ocean farms and no industry development plan, but rapid change is on the horizon,” she said.
“We’ve consulted with industry and identified a $100 million-plus opportunity for seaweed over the next five years, with potential to scale to $1.5 billion over the next 20 years.”
One of the native seaweeds found off the Australian coast, Asparagopsis, has been shown to reduce methane emissions from cattle to almost zero when added to their feed.
Major investors Andrew Forrest, Woolworths and GrainCorp have recently begun research into seaweed farming.
According to the Australian Seaweed Industry blueprint released by Agrifutures Australia this week, the future of the industry will rely on significant expansion into ocean cultivation of native seaweeds and development of high-value nutritional products for humans, animals and plants.
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