Macroalgal commercialization in the Orient

Abstract

Macroalgal commercialization covers all activities dealing with seaweed production and utilization in a broad sense, including the collection of seaweeds from their natural beds, artificial enhancement, extensive cultivation in large scale, as well as their processing and trade. The collection and utilization of seaweeds as commodities can be traced fairly far back into history, but large scale commercialized macroalgal production based on modern cultivation of seaweeds has been developed only in the past two to three decades in some of the oriental countries. It has been supported and directed by scientific achievements in phycology and in the technology of cultivation. The developments in production scale, quantities and value of macroalgal products have been at completely unprecedented speed. It is estimated that about 2400 000 tonnes of wet seaweed worth hundreds of millions of dollars have been produced annually in the four main Oriental countries, namely, China, Japan, Korea and the Philippines, just by modern seaweed cultivation, and about 670000 people have been involved.