The Current State of the Australian Seaweed Industry

CURRENT STATE OF THE AUSTRALIAN SEAWEED INDUSTRY

The Australian seaweed industry is small: currently valued at an estimated GVP of AUD $3 million. Of this, the majority is from one company, Kelp Industries Pty Ltd on King Island in Tasmania, who collect storm-cast Bull Kelp (Durvillea pototorum) predominantly for export to a large alginate manufacturer and for use in biofertiliser products. Australia Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data shows seaweed exports from Australia are valued at $1.5 million for non-human consumption and it is assumed that this is almost entirely from Kelp Industries exports. 

However, Australia is a net importer of seaweed. Annual imports to Australia in 2017/18 approached AUD $40 million, of which 85% was for human consumption. Imports have been increasing, on average, at 15% per year, up from AUD $17 million reported in 2008/09 (Lee, 2010). Table 2 shows that Australia pays a high unit price for imported seaweed food products from China and South Korea. 

There are currently no commercial ocean seaweed farms in Australia and only two small land-based operations for Ulva spp. cultivation in Shoalhaven, NSW (Venus Shell Systems) and Ayr, QLD (Pacific Biotechnology). Both of these operations each have less than five hectares of seaweed under production. 

Besides Kelp Industries, other seaweed collectors in Tasmania include Kelpomix and TasKelp. There is a license for small scale collection of Golden Kelp (Ecklonia radiata) in NSW at Narooma where it is dried and turned into food products at Sea Health Products. Additionally Great Gather Ocean Group, is a Chinese owned company, which has a South Australia based beachcast seaweed business at Millicent in the south-east of the state. There are also licenses for wild harvest of the invasive species of Undaria in Tasmania (KaiHo Ocean Treasure) and some in Victoria. Based on information provided in stakeholder interviews and publicly available, it is estimated that there are approximately 20 full time equivalents (FTE) directly employed in commercial seaweed cultivation in Australia.

Collection of seaweeds is currently the main source of Australian seaweed today, however, there are a number of limiting factors for collection of seaweeds including availability of beach-cast seaweed, quality, seasonality, community concerns and permitting. Wild harvest of seaweed from in-sea is of concern due to the lack of information on its potential to regrow and other potential environmental impacts. Therefore, the report does not further consider the growth of this sector given the very limited opportunity from an economic, social and environmental perspective.

Two Australian seaweed product manufacturers of note are Seasol, who make a biofertiliser from Australian Bull Kelp, and Marinova who manufacture fucoidan extract from largely imported seaweeds for the health and nutrition market. There are also a small number of boutique food product producers using some Australian and imported seaweeds, such as Alg Seaweed.

Past Australian research on seaweeds is considerable although fragmented and it was generally recognised by key stakeholders interviewed that there is a lack of biological knowledge on most species which is critical in underpinning the success of an emergent cultivation industry. Previous AgriFutures Australia reports have focussed predominantly on applications of seaweeds for food, the nutritional properties of a limited number of species, and quality control in production (Lee, 2008; Winberg et al., 2008).

Currently the industry largely consists of seaweed scientists and researchers with an estimated 30 – 40 FTE roles spread across several research institutions nationwide. Australia currently has no centralised research hub for marine plants or bioproducts. Most seaweed expertise resides at marine research or biotechnology departments at several universities, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Australia Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).

While there are numerous research projects taking place or being planned (Figure 1), the only lines in the water that are growing seaweed at the time of this report are two projects in Tasmania. The first project is a CRC-P project involving collaboration with Tassal, Spring Bay Seafoods and University of Tasmania (UTAS) and is expected to reap their first harvest later this year. This project aims to demonstrate the benefits of Kelps as part of an integrated multitrophic aquaculture (IMTA) approach. The second is a research collaboration between UTAS and Huon Aquaculture in Storm Bay that will also yield its first harvest in late 2020.

In stakeholder interviews, most State Government aquaculture regulators, with the exception of Northern Territory and Victoria, reported a significant increase in parties interested in obtaining aquaculture licenses for seaweed ocean farms. The Climate Foundation’s seaweed permaculture concept and upwelling technology gained a lot of public interest following the documentary 2040 and close to $600,000 was crowdfunded for a small technology pilot focussed on Kelp production in Tasmania.

But much of the recent commercial interest has been sparked by the discovery that a group of native Australian seaweeds, Asparagopsis spp., can reduce the methane emissions from cattle by 99% when as little as 2% is added to their feed (Kinley et al., 2016; Machado et al., 2016). This discovery is being commercialised by FutureFeed Pty Ltd, which was established by CSIRO to hold the exclusive rights to the patents from CSIRO, James Cook University and Meat and Livestock Australia.

As there is currently no large-scale commercial cultivation of this seaweed anywhere in the world, there is now a global race to begin large scale cultivation. FutureFeed will work with partners across the value chain to bring this product to market: establishing the production supply chain, processing, storage, distribution, QA, certification, marketing and carbon credit methodology. In Australia, there are two new entrants: 1) CH4 Global in South Australia and 2) Sea Forests in Tasmania. This is a fast-emerging, major opportunity for growth of the Australian seaweed industry and is discussed in the next section.

Each State and Territory Government provided input to this project and the table below reflects current approvals for seaweed aquaculture around Australia at the time of this report.

OTHER SEAWEED PROJECTS IN AUSTRALIA

Other Projects:

  • Australian Aquatic Plant Names Standard - FRDC

  • Harnessing seaweed genes to mitigate methane emissions from livestock, USC – ARC Discovery Project

  • Operation Crayweed – UNSW restoration project Sydney

  • Seaweed Farming for SDGs Workshops (UTAS/UQ/Future Earth)

  • Anticancer properties of red algae – Griffith Uni PhD

  • Cosmeceutical from red algae – Griffith Uni

  • ISS2022 – Feb 2022

Relevant CRCs:

  • Blue Economy CRC

  • Future Food Systems CRC

  • Northern Australia CRC

  • Marine Bioproducts CRC (2020 bid) – Flinders/ UQ/Griffith/Deakin/UTAS/ CSIRO / SARDI

  • Coastal Communities CRC (2020 bid)