Prospects for Seaweed Production in Developing Countries

The use of seaweed as food has been traced back to the fourth century in Japan and the sixth century in China. Today those two countries and the Republic of Korea are the largest consumers of seaweed as food and their requirements provide the basis of an industry that worldwide harvests 6 000 000 tonnes of wet seaweed per annum with a value of around US$ five billion. Increasing demand over the last fifty years outstripped the ability to supply requirements from natural (wild) stocks. Research into the life cycles of these algae has led to the development of cultivation industries that now produce more than 90 percent of the market’s demand....