ASSESSMENT OF EU REGULATORY LANDSCAPE FOR SEAWEED CULTIVATION AND MARKET

 In November 2022, the EU proposed 23 actions to facilitate the growth of a sustainable seaweed industry. These actions aim to enhance governance, improve the business environment, bridge research gaps, and raise social awareness. Despite its potential, the European seaweed industry faces systemic challenges.

 A regulatory assessment made in January 2024 by the project SeaMark, identified some key obstacles for the expansion of a European seaweed market .  These were mainly uncertainties in Novel F ood status, strict health-claim requirements, unaligned regulations across  borders in both authorization and cultivation, and a lack of separation between organic and inorganic arsenic limits. The obstacles differed between the three focus applications; green alginate, beta-glucan and fermented pig feed, which also highlights a difficult regulatory environment. Also, the study found that compared to the seaweed market in other continents, there is generally a lack of incentives in the EU for accelerating seaweed cultivation, such as subsidies and market development programmes . Compared to agricultural legislation (e.g. CAP), this makes the thresholds for success higher for aquaculture in general, and seaweed in particular due to the novelty aspect.

Recommendations to ease the regulatory challenges and foster the sustainable and circular economy seaweed offers in the EU are:

• Standardize and expedite licensing for seaweed farms.
•  Speed up authorization processes while ensuring transparency and harmonization.
•  Develop precise regulatory guidance for macroalgae.
•  Provide targeted support, subsidies, and infrastructure funding, especially for SMEs.
• Encourage international collaboration and alignment with global standards.

Since the completion of the assessment, new species and derivatives from seaweed were given approvals on their novel food status , a stakeholder consultation on maximum levels for inorganic arsenic is under consultation, a green claims directive has been voted on in the parliament, and other reforms  affecting the seaweed market  are expected. This will be followed in SeaMark and AlgaeProBANOS looking at product commercialization, go-to-market strategies, sustainability assessment and general development of seaweed products . Also,  the EU Algae Industry Study, supporting a sustainable EU algae industry ,  will examine the current regulatory ecosystem and the potential for strengthening the market deeper.