Provision of quality seed, ensuring good production practices, adding value through processing and reducing information gaps are all crucial to make Indonesia’s seaweed sector more competitive, according to a respected seaweed processing entrepreneur.
A side-by-side comparison of conventional and insect-based aquafeed ingredients has found that insect meals and oils come with a larger carbon footprint and require more energy to produce than marine ingredients – but this discrepancy might be short-lived.
Though seaweed operations are diverse – specialising in various species and operating in different economic circumstances – today’s macroalgae practitioners need to stay grounded in science as they work towards their scale and sustainability goals for 2030.
Six years after taking up aquaculture Yatendra Kashyap is one of the leading fish farmers in Bihar, with an annual production of around 65 tonnes of carp, generating a turnover of around 9 million rupees (US $120,411).
A Dutch startup is planning to integrate aquaculture of seaweed and bivalve shellfish into floating breakwaters – simultaneously protecting fragile coastlines, providing ecosystem services and potentially producing seafood.
According to Ohad Maiman, founder and CEO of The Kingfish Company, they can indeed – although he warned that sustainability is by no means “a free pass” to profitability.
Alexsandra Caseiro is one of the stalwarts of the Brazilian aquaculture sector, spending two decades in the feed sector, before setting up her own consultancy firm, operating mainly in in Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Mexico and Brazil.
