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Russia's Fisheries Agency to develop seaweed program

RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Thursday, September 19, 2024, 06:30 (GMT + 9)

MOSCOW. (Interfax) - Russia's has huge potential to harvest, grow and use seaweed, but this resource is underutilized so the Federal Fisheries Agency might develop a separate program to rectify this, agency head Ilya Shestakov said at a roundtable during the Global Fishery Forum in St. Petersburg on Tuesday.

"The potential in this area is huge, but we underuse it. There are enormous opportunities not only to grow seaweed, but also to harvest and process this wild resource," Shestakov said.

Shestakov said he is considering forming a working group to draft a special program to develop this area. "This is important in terms of the development of the whole fisheries sector," he said.

The deputy director and head of the Pacific Ocean branch of the Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography, Alexei Baitalyuk said at the roundtable that there is potential to harvest 2 million tonnes of seaweed from seas that wash Russia's shores, including 1.5 million tonnes in the country's Far East. "This is not stocks, it's for harvest," he added.

"Obviously, brown algae - laminaria, foremost costaria, alaria - make up most of this. The phytomass of other types is also very high. There are about 150,000 tonnes of seaweed in the Zaliv Izmeny, or Bay of Betrayal on Sakhalin Island alone, 650,000 tonnes in the White Sea," Baitalyuk said.

"In terms of the availability of resources, in terms of regulatory documents, there are no problems for organizing this industry. But the problem is that a large share of these resources is located in areas without insufficient infrastructure, without sufficient logistics and consists of varieties with low nutritious and processing value. That's a fact. As a result, utilization of seaweed amounts to less than 5%," Baitalyuk said.

"Seaweed resources in parts of the Russian Far East that are close to infrastructure are estimated at 900,000 tonnes", he said. "This is more than enough to produce food and processed products for the domestic market, but imports of processed seaweed products are nonetheless growing every year," he said.

"The challenge today is to develop and introduce equipment and technology to harvest and process seaweed, and minimize the cost of these processes," Baitalyuk said.

Independent expert Inna Golfand said China, which has a 60% share of the global seaweed market, could, to a certain extent, serve as an example for the development of this area in Russia.

"Russia harvests 37,000 tonnes of seaweed per year, China harvests almost 23 million tonnes already, mostly with the use of aquaculture. Seaweed consumption in food in China is about 9 kg per year, 30 times more than in Russia," Golfand said.

Furthermore, 40% of the seaweed grown in China is processed for use in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and other products.

Russia's seaweed market is now worth about 4 billion rubles, but it has the potential to grow to 400 billion rubles, Golfand said. Investors, technology, stronger government support and access to financing, as well as promotion of seaweed consumption, are needed to develop this potential, she said.

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