I counted no less than 20 seaweed startups in this autumn’s (ocean) accelerator cohorts. Clearly, more people want to do something with seaweeds. I should know, I am one of them.
This week marks one year since I registered the Phyconomy domain name. It’s been fun so far. At the same time, I learned a lot of things I would have been happier not knowing; looking at the present state and the likely future of the ocean with a healthy dose of realism is, frankly, depressing.
Seaweed is no quick fix for the ocean’s problems, and you cannot google it into being so.
This much I already knew when I started this project. I’m not here to save the planet. I’m here to document the fledgling seaweed industry.
As a next step in this mission, I started doing some reporting myself this month. I interviewed Phil Cruver about his idea to grow seaweeds offshore in cages to protect them against storms, predators and ice-ice disease. And I discussed the latest goings-on in the Asparagopsis space, as the 3 leading companies all announced they are moving from lab-scale to production-scale.
I look forward to year 2.
Food markets grow in all directions
Seaweed snacks
If you have eaten seaweed chips before, there is a good chance they came from your local Asian supermarket in a bag from Thai snack titan Tao Kae Noi. That’s about to change as new brands are arriving on the shelves of big retail chains.
Chips from Scottish brand Shore are set to appear in 300 Belgian supermarkets of the Delhaize chain. US-based 12 Tides also makes chips. Their snacks are now available in Whole Foods stores across Northern California. Looking for a dip? Nordic Oceanfruit is already being sold in 1100 shops across Germany.
Plant-based seafood
The team behind Oceanfruit also make BettaF!sh. They came up with a seaweed-and-legumes Tu-Nah sandwich, for sale in 4000 Aldi stores from next week on.
Modern Seafood will use Cascadia’s crops to develop new plant-based seafoods. This comes on top of news that Cascadia attracted VC platform Billy Goat Brands as a cornerstone investor. Billy Goat Brands invests in companies with a focus on the blue economy and ESG values; their portfolio include Sophie’s Kitchen and The Vegetarian Butcher.
Not to be outdone, Nestlé has come up with a vegan shrimp based on seaweed and peas. In line with their Vuna offering, the new product is called Vrimp. Yup.
Gim
Lest we forget, South Korea exports more than razor-sharp social critiques packaged up as immaculately produced pop culture. Exports of seaweeds came to US$507 million in the January-September period of 2021. In 2010, exports only amounted to $100 million. That is a 500% increase in 10 years time. I’d be interested to find out what drove this growth (beyond, obviously, mukbang).
Walmart scion invests with vision
Builders Vision, fueled by the billions of the Walmart empire, has been quietly funding the companies that are reshaping the food system, with a mix of philanthropy and venture capital. The veil has been lifted now. Through its Rising Tides impact investment fund, Builders Vision has invested in Urchinomics, Atlantic Sea Farms and Oceanium.
Restoration effort bears fruits in Tasmania
After the giant kelp forests of Tasmania all but disappeared due to warmer ocean currents, a team of scientists headed by Cayne Layton are seeing some success by selectively breeding the surviving, more heat-tolerant individuals.
“The average size is around two or three metres … and about 40-50 survivors at each site,” Dr Layton said.
“At both sites there are individuals now which are reproductive, so they've got those specialised spore-bearing blades at the base of the individuals, and hopefully now they're going to start releasing spores.”
New job board
October has yielded a number of interesting post-doc and PhD opportunities so far, as well as hands-on operational job openings, from Puerto Rico to Lithuania. From now on I am collecting them here.