Australian Seaweed Industry

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.

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.

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.

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.