Australian Seaweed Industry Delegation to travel to South Korea
The Australian Sustainable Seaweed Alliance (ASSA) is leading an industry delegation to South Korea from Monday 11 November though to Sunday 17 November to share learning and better understand supply chain successes from a leading Asian seaweed producer and exporter.
With funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) through the Australia-Korea Foundation in addition to existing grant funding and private contributions, this initiative will provide the group of fifteen ASSA members and industry and research leaders the opportunity to gather insights and explore advancements that can drive meaningful growth and innovation in the Australian seaweed sector.
The group will meet with Australian and South Korean business and government representatives in Seoul, as well as tour seaweed farms and processing centres in the Jindo and Wando regions in the country’s south.
ASSA CEO Lindsay Hermes said much like its role in Indigenous Australia over many thousands of years, South Korea enjoyed a long historical involvement with the cultivation and use of this marine resource, and that in both countries, as well as increasingly across the Asia-Pacific, traditional seaweed farming methods had now evolved and also include state-of-the-art technology to produce the resource.
“The Asia Pacific region is at various stages of seaweed development but as a whole is critical to the ongoing growth of a globally significant seaweed industry, which is why we are taking an Australian industry delegation to South Korea this month,” Mr Hermes said.
“Our group aims to learn and share knowledge, establish new relationships and better understand wellestablished supply chains developed in a country that is producing and exporting significant volumes of seaweed to markets around the world.”
“Some of the seaweed types and their applications that Australian industry is looking to further develop, are somewhat different from the dried edible seaweed market dominated by Korea and a number of other Asian countries, but there is a lot to be learnt, as the product moves from farm to factory to being freighted around the globe. We will soak up as much as we can in order help grow our emerging Australian industry.”
This comes as organisers of the longstanding and respected Seagriculture Conferences, DLG Benelux, together with ASSA recently announced that Professor Tim Flannery, one of Australia’s leading writers on climate change and an internationally acclaimed scientist, explorer and conservationist, will open Seagriculture Asia-Pacific 2025, a global gathering set for 18-20 March in Adelaide.
Professor Flannery, a former Australian of the Year and Councillor at the Climate Council, joins a range of other speakers recently revealed, with the Seagriculture conference having been successfully organized since 2012 and having built up a solid reputation as the leading conference for the seaweed industry.
The addition of this first in person Asia-Pacific edition complements their existing European and US conferences. Locally, the Australian Government has committed $8 million to the Developing Australia’s Seaweed Farming Program, within which ASSA and the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) are collaborating to accelerate seaweed aquaculture in Australia.
This includes support for a seaweed National Hatchery Network and scientific teams in Queensland and South Australia, as well as wider support for knowledge sharing opportunities, with Seagriculture Asia-Pacific 2025 being a prime example.
Media contact: assa@horizoncg.com.au
More information on Seagriculutre Asia Pacific 2025 incl registration here.
