36 JUNE 2014 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG Current Markets — Import and Export Seaweeds are a source of diverse industrial products. This industry is valued at US$7 billion (FAO 2010, 2011) with an estimated production of 130 million t. The dominant share of the market, valued at US$6 billion, is for human consumption with just over a billion dollars for the production of value added co-products such as hydrocolloids, bioactives, animal feeds and fertilizers (Table 1). The average price of seaweed in the global market increased by over 50 percent in the last decade, associated with significant growth in demand (Table 2) and a limited supply. The value of trade in seaweed reached over US$1 billion, with imports valued at US$0.62 billion and exports at US$0.51 billion in 2009 (Figure 10). The total quantity of global imports and exports of seaweeds were 0.30 and 0.29 million t, respectively. Seaweeds were valued at US$2,033/t and US$1,764/t in the import and export market, respectively. Data for 2010 and 2011 is not yet available from FAO because of technical issues (Vannuccini, pers. comm.)1. Six of the top ten seaweed import markets are based in Asia (Fig. 11). China is ranked first in the world in the value and quantity of seaweed imports. Because of an increased demand for seaweed products in China, seaweed prices have been pushed to record highs. Demand from other markets, such as the Philippines, Russia, Australia, Mexico and Thailand, is also rising (Table 2). Future Opportunities with Seaweed Resources Currently seaweeds are used as food, food ingredients, in cosmetics, fertilizers and in the production of hydrocolloids, such as agar and alginate. Most of the current commercial exploitation of seaweeds is based on farming of edible species or for the production of hydrocolloids. Additional commercial opportunities for seaweed production include processing for bioactives−some 15,000 have been chemically isolated to date (Cardozo et al. 2007, Holdt and Kraan 2011), nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, human food, animal stock feeds; soil conditioners, fertilizers and biofuels (Table 1). Opportunities for utilization in nutraceuticals, human foods and a) b) Figure 11 10 | Page Figure 9 TOP LEFT, HORIZONTAL BAR GRAPH, FIGURE 9. Value of global cultivated seaweed production by species in 2010 (million US$). TOP RIGHT, VERTICAL BAR GRAPH, FIGURE 10. Trends in the quantity (million t) and value (billion US$) of global seaweed imports and exports for the period 2007 to 2009. BOTTOM LEFT AND RIGHT, FIGURE 11. Quantity in million t (a) and value in billion US$ (b) of the global seaweed import and export market in 2009 for various importing and exporting nations. (a) (b) 11 | Page Figure 10
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