Building the Seaweed Industry Roadmap 2050, showing the future of seaweed
2024-02-08
Following the Seaweed Sector Roadmap 2022, developed within the INTERREG Wier & Wind project, and a 10-point Action Plan 2030, developed in 2023, North Sea Farmers aims this year to consolidate a Seaweed Industry Roadmap 2050 for seaweed production and the markets feed, food, biostimulants and biomaterials. In the coming months we will be organising several Sector Sessions for the surrounding markets.
The aim of the Sector Sessions is to create a robust and collaborative document outlining the goals and actions needed to achieve them by the milestones of 2030, 2040 and 2050.
Agenda setting
As a seaweed sector, we want to make seaweed available and affordable as a renewable resource. Several members of North Sea Farmers are working hard every day to achieve this. Because seaweed production and processing is still an expensive business, the cost price is still high. This makes it less attractive for companies to use seaweed as an alternative raw material and demand lags behind.
That is why we want to put seaweed's potential for a sustainable and circular blue economy clearly on the agenda and encourage policymakers to promote seaweed production through subsidies and legislation. This is why we want to consolidate the Seaweed Industry Roadmap 2050. The idea is to have a more robust and collaborative document that outlines the goals and actions needed to achieve them by the milestones of 2030, 2040 and 2050.
Sector Sessions
The Seaweed Industry Roadmap 2050 should serve as a basis for representing the sector to the EU and the Netherlands. If the various players within the seaweed industry are aligned, we will all have a common basis for communication and a common horizon to work towards. To achieve this, a roadmap cannot be built alone.
Therefore, a series of consultation meetings with our members will take place throughout the year. The information gathered during these sessions, which will focus on (1) seaweed production and (2) four different markets: food, feed, biostimulants and biomaterials, will serve as input for the Roadmap 2050. We also want to leave room for future discussion and continuous improvement, which will ideally lead us to achieve our goals and position locally and sustainably cultivated seaweed as a relevant and widely used resource in Europe.
Food Market
The sector sessions take place online and are fully interactive. All members are invited and encouraged to attend. Please contact us if you have not received an invitation and we will send you the link to the event! The first sector session on this topic will be the Sector Session Seaweed Industry Roadmap Food Market on 22 February from 14.00 - 16.00 CEST.
