APEC Report on Scaling Seaweed: Strengthening Climate Resilience and Food Security in the Asia-Pacific
SDG 13: Climate Action | SDG 2: Zero Hunger | SDG 14: Life Below Water | SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying
The APEC report, ‘Strengthening Climate Resilience and Food Security via Stakeholder-Driven Sustainable Seaweed Supply Chains’, identifies seaweed as a strategic bioresource essential for meeting the food demands of a global population projected to reach 10 billion by 2050. Seaweed aquaculture has emerged as a premier “Blue Economy” solution, with global production reaching 36.5 million tonnes valued at USD 17 billion in 2022. A key pillar of this development is the utilization of Blue Carbon Pathways to mitigate climate change while supporting marine ecosystem restoration.
Key findings from the APEC region include:
Production Concentration: Over 96% of global farmed algae output is concentrated in Asia, led by China, Indonesia, Korea, and the Philippines.
Climate Mitigation: Seaweed offers significant “avoided emissions” potential through fossil-fuel substitutes like bioplastics and livestock feed additives (e.g., Asparagopsis taxiformis) that can reduce bovine methane emissions by over 80%.
Supply Chain Bottlenecks: The sector faces high climate-driven instability, seedstock shortages, and a lack of standardized post-harvest protocols, often limiting developing economies to low-value raw exports.
Best Practice Models: The report highlights Indonesia’s Just Transition framework for blue carbon governance, Japan’s J-Blue Credit® scheme for standardized carbon certification, and Korea’s USD 1-billion laver (Gim) industry as blueprints for scaling the sector.
What are Blue Carbon Pathways? These refer to the carbon captured and stored by the world’s ocean and coastal ecosystems, such as mangroves, seagrasses, and seaweed forests. While seaweed is not yet formally recognized globally as a carbon “sink” due to permanence uncertainties, emerging evidence suggests it can bury carbon in seafloor sediments at rates comparable to mangroves, offering a potent tool for meeting net-zero targets.
Policy Relevance
While not an APEC member, India’s coastline and its Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) goals make these regional insights highly relevant for the Ministry of Fisheries:
Industrial Upgrading: Like Indonesia, India currently exports raw seaweed at low margins. Adopting Korea’s “specialized value chain” model—from mechanized drying to global branding—is critical for India to transition into high-value hydrocolloid and nutraceutical markets.
Methane Abatement: With one of the world’s largest livestock populations, India can leverage the report’s findings on seaweed feed additives to achieve its climate commitments under the Global Methane Pledge.
Disaster Risk Management: APEC’s focus on seaweeds as “living shorelines” to reduce storm impacts provides a cost-effective adaptation strategy for India’s cyclone-prone eastern seaboard.
Standardization: India can learn from Japan’s J-Blue Credit to establish a domestic carbon-credit framework that allows small-scale coastal farmers to monetize their conservation efforts without bearing prohibitive verification costs.
Follow the full report here: Strengthening Climate Resilience and Food Security via Stakeholder-Driven Sustainable Seaweed Supply Chains