About

Hatch Blue's mission is to support the sustainable development and commercialisation of innovative solutions across the global aquaculture market. Over recent years, we have witnessed increasing interest from entrepreneurs, investors, corporates, and governments in seaweed aquaculture. We recognise that understanding the complexity of this market can be challenging, as it spans diverse regions, farming systems, species, and languages.

With this project, we aim to provide all stakeholders with a clear and comprehensive understanding of the reality of today’s seaweed supply chain. We hope that it provides readers with valuable and practical information that can spur the development of better products, services, and business models that help catalyse the adoption of innovation along the entire seaweed value chain.

The project is supported by four main partners: Builders Vision, Mustardseed Trust, The Nest Family Office and the Center for Applied Aquaculture Innovation (iAlumbra). 

“Seaweed has the potential to create both environmental and social impact at scale, and we are proud to support Hatch’s work in better understanding how we can use seaweed as a tool to help create a more resilient future.” Hallie Fox, Senior Associate.

"At Builders Vision, we invest in regenerative solutions that serve both people and planet. We’re proud to support Hatch’s leadership in advancing seaweed as a tool for ocean health and climate resilience, and in driving equitable, data-driven blue economic growth.” Laura Rodriguez, Senior Program Officer for Oceans. 

“At Mustardseed Trust, we partner with those who are transforming the systems that shape our world, and Hatch Blue’s Seaweed Insights exemplifies that vision. This program focuses on ocean health, but we recognise that all systems — ecological, economic and social — are interconnected.” Petra Cauwels, Impact Investment and Operations Manager.

“At the Center for Applied Aquaculture Innovation, we believe in the power of collaborative, science-driven initiatives to unlock sustainable growth. Hatch Blue’s Seaweed Insights project aligns deeply with our mission to advance innovative aquaculture solutions that benefit both communities and ecosystems.” Alejandro Castillo, Senior Program Officer, iAlumbra.

About Hatch Blue Consulting

Hatch Blue Consulting, the research and consulting unit of Hatch Blue, brings you this knowledge platform for the global seaweed industry. With deep market insights and expert guidance, we specialize in industry benchmarking, investment strategies, and technology expertise, helping clients successfully navigate the complexities of the aquaculture sector.  Our core value proposition is to offer data-driven insights that enable our clients to increase revenue opportunities and explore new markets.

Hatch Blue is a global venture and advisory company dedicated to supporting sustainable aquaculture innovation and development. We bring together a range of offerings, including tailored investments, bespoke consulting, diverse accelerator programs, and distinctive storytelling and marketing expertise. 

For more info, please visit our website or get in touch**.

The main objective of the work is to compare how commercial seaweed species are farmed today and provide practical insights that will help identify and verify innovation opportunities for – and investment opportunities in – the emerging global seaweed sector.

Across the main farmed seaweed species, we primarily visited producers and their sites to collect data on site selection, farm design, seeding, grow out, harvest, post harvest and sales processes of the particular seaweed crop. Additionally, we gathered socio-demographic data on each farmer and asked them about their challenges, expansion plans and wishes for their farm.

All data were gathered using visual observations and conducting verbal interviews with farmers on-site. The farmer often represents a farming household or company and all interviews were conducted with at least one family member or company representative. Beyond farms, we also visited input suppliers, local collectors and traders, processors and exporters, as well as research institutes, local NGOs or government agencies to cover most players in the supply chain. 

The sites visited were selected based on how representative each species was in their production region and guided by at least one local industry expert.

We sincerely thank all farmers and individuals who participated in this survey. We also thank the industry experts, local guides and professors that supported the preparation and revision of this report.

Each page will show a table summarising data we collected on the site visits. The information we have provided consists of practical insights, which are largely lacking in existing research papers and have not been published in a consolidated format as presented here. At the same time we want to highlight that these are selected data points that we chose to be most valuable to demonstrate the current status of the particular farming process.

Additional information and explanation on the data provided can be found below each table. We took as many pictures as possible on these visits to support the data presented in a more visual way, with limitations due to weather conditions and off-season travels for some of the species. Hence, some of the pictures were kindly provided by researchers and local experts supporting our field visits.

We got first-hand insights on their highly diverse production systems and conditions between seaweed species, countries and national regions. 

Between May and August 2022  more than 100 seaweed farms were visited and 94 interviews were conducted across 15 different regions in the main seaweed producing countries. We travelled and collected in-field data from Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan and gained insights on China remotely. According to official global production volumes, these countries (including North Korea) account for 98% of total farmed seaweed production today.  

Between July and November 2025 more than 75 seaweed farms were visited and dozens of interviews with value chain actors were conducted across 25 different regions in the main seaweed producing countries of Latin America.  We travelled and collected in-field data from Chile, Brazil, Venezuela, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada. These countries have been identified as major and emerging producers of cultivated seaweed on the continent, both by volume and number of active producers. 

Note on limitations

1. Due to persistent travel restrictions, we could not conduct in-field visits in China. All information presented here about Chinese seaweed production is based on expert interviews and communication with approximately 30 local farmers via Wechat.

2. Some individual seaweed species have been summarised under the 5 seaweed species groups presented here, (see global production page for complete breakdown of species) . Therefore some particular methods or datapoints with regards to unique seaweed species may not be reflected properly.

3. This report does not cover every technological, biological or economical aspect of the farming process and is merely a first-hand insight into the most common methods of seaweed aquaculture.

4. Furthermore, while our insights show the differences in technology use across countries, only data from farms that we believed to be representative for each country is presented. Please note that some of the techniques used in different regions are partially pertinent (and suitable) to the local in-situ conditions and readers should be aware of this when making their own assessments.