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Socio-economic performance of the food sector The market for enriched or fortified food or food additives like vitamins, probiotic elements and antioxidants has experienced tremendous growth over the past years169. Europe has experienced industries that develop these products from seaweed. Value added production processes find place in Europe. However, with almost no production of seaweed Europe is heavily dependent on import of raw materials from Asia. The world market for functional foods and drinks is expected to reach USD 130 billion by 2015, according to Global Industry Analysts170. The retail price of alginate is USD 5-15/kg, with an approximate gross global market value of USD 230m per year171. The potential use of alginates is much larger than the current market size. If the price of alginate could drop under the EUR 1000 per ton it could be en replacement of the common used substance CMC172. Alginates are completely biodegradable and could be used to improve soil, to produce slow release fertilizers and as additive in drilling fluids. If the price could be lower than 1000 EUR/ton alginate could be an alternative for CMC (Carboximethylcelluloses). Additionally, it is used by celebrity chefs for molecular cooking. Alginate is also used as food ingredient, additive to textile printing ink and in welding rods. Currently, the largest seaweed producing countries in the world are the Philippines and China. Indonesia also has a fast growing seaweed sector which will produce 10m tonnes of seaweed per year by 2015. In the western hemisphere the seaweed industry is developing in Chile and Canada. Generally, the cultivation of this resource requires intensive manual labour. Offshore seaweed harvesting is also possible but requires a much higher degree of mechanisation. Europe’s production on the other hand is small scale, in particular in comparison with production in Asia. In Europe the seaweed industry is working on the modernisation of the cultivation techniques. Traditional European seaweed industry relies on wild harvested seaweeds. This is or was done in Ireland, France and Norway on a small scale basis. Competition with East Asian seaweed cultivation seems to be highly challenging without mechanised production systems. Role of SMEs in the food sector The European Union is responsible for 21 percent of the world of hydrocolloids, and for 38 percent of the world production of alginates. For the production of these hydrocolloids an estimated 39,000 tonnes of dry seaweed is needed, based on 45 percent of dry weight percentage which can be used for the production of hyrdocolloids.173 Converted to wet weight (with a conversion percentage of 15 percent of dry weight in wet weight), the required production of wet weight is over 263,000 tonnes. Cargill Incorporated, the large privately-owned agricultural commodities trader, has recently planned to invest around EUR 11.3m to expand and improve its alginates production plant in Lannilis, France174. The plant itself is said to have a substantial focus on the sustainable supply of brown seaweed. Another widely known producers involved in European alginate production is FMC Biopolymer, which produces alginates in its plant at Sandvika, Norway. 169 http://www.adlittle.com/downloads/tx_adlprism/1999_q2_26-30.pdf 170 http://www.reportlinker.com/ci02036/Functional-Food.html 171 Susan Løvstad Holdt & Stefan Kraan, 2011, Bioactive compounds in seaweed: functional food, applications and legislation, Journal of Appl Phycol 172 Personal communication Frans Hofhuis. 173 Average based on: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/aquaculture/docs/research/2013%20AAAS/2013_aaas_forster_presentation.pdf 174 http://www.foodnavigator.com/Financial-Industry/Cargill-invests-15m-in-French-alginates-plant 136 Study in support of Impact Assessment work on Blue Biotechnology

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