Interest in the seaweed industry is growing rapidly across Europe, and seaweed farming is viewed as a forerunner of a sustainability transition with widespread local benefits.

However, a new study from the University of Eastern Finland questions if the industry is able to deliver on its promises of an inclusive transition. Conducted in Norway, the study found a mismatch between the seaweed farming industry’s projected development pathways and the possibilities for an inclusive participation of coastal communities in this novel economy.

“The current political-economic environment of the seaweed industry leaves little room for alternative, inclusive development pathways. While seaweed farming has high sustainable potentials to provide food, feed and biomaterials, the dominant focus on large-scale, techno-innovative, centralised processes, limits its social transformation capacities,” associate professor Moritz Albrecht of the University of Eastern Finland said.

A focus on more on local value chains, small-scale approaches and new ways of production and consumption would be fairer and more ecological. Therefore, in terms of regional policy and locally inclusive development, the role of the seaweed sector, its policy framework and investment instruments should be more diverse to enable also alternative development pathways that supplement the current techno-innovative solutions with social, innovative approaches.

Although the study was conducted in Norway, the University believes its findings also have implications on EU policy and the potential of its political framework to enable a just transition.

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