The Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) have actively collected wild seaweed and cultivated various species of seaweeds over the past decades. Even though seaweed farming production has declined over the last 5 years in most of the Pacific producing countries and territories, these commodities continue to play an important role at the economic and rural development levels in various countries and territories within the region.
The production of seaweeds is largely based on the cultivation of species of the genus Kapapphycus, intended for export to obtain hydrocolloids (e.g. agar, alginates, carrageenan). These species are not native to the Pacific region and were introduced in different waves of introduction of exotic genetic material from the 1950s and 1960s. Countries like the Solomon Islands have maintained a relatively constant production of these species, destined for export. In addition, other countries, mainly located in Polynesia, have focused their production on local species of the genus Caulerpa (among others), destined for domestic and export markets – mainly Asian markets, but in this case for direct human consumption. Furthermore, in several Polynesian countries, such as Tonga, the production of “mozuku” seaweed (Cladosiphon spp.) either for domestic consumption and for exports is gaining a lot of attention from national governments, investors, farmers and exporters.
The production of seaweeds in PICTs presents numerous limitations for its sustainable maintenance and responsible expansion, among others: optimization of production systems, management of disease and epiphyte risks, improvement of harvesting, storage, pre-processing, and processing strategies, as well as facilitation of negotiations for export. On the other hand, challenges associated with climate change are notably affecting the consistent production and high quality of seaweed crops in the Pacific, including rising temperatures, increased eutrophication of coastal waters, drastic changes in salinity and pH – mostly associated with extreme weather events, increased prevalence and incidence of infectious diseases (e.g. ice-ice disease syndrome) and pests (e.g. epiphytes), as well as existing conflicts with other users of the same coastal resources. It can be said that main challenges to seaweed production in PICTs are to maintain a constant and adequate production volume – considering its geographical isolation and disadvantages with other producing regions, such as Asia – and to ensure optimal and constant quality throughout the production system and storage.
The cultivation of seaweeds currently plays and may play in the future, an important positive role on Pacific communities, facilitating food security, improving their quality of life, enhancing livelihoods, and diversifying income generation activities, but coherent and rapid action is required in order to minimize production risks and find feasible solutions to the main constraints faced in seaweed production and marketing.
Keywords: seaweed, PICTs, production, marketing