Coastal Entrepreneurs Continue To Ramp Up Maine’s Production Of Kelp
Seth Barker harvests kelp grown in the Damariscotta River estuary by the startup aquaculture company he co-owns, Maine Fresh Sea Farms. (Fred Bever/Maine Public)
Coastal entrepreneurs continue to ramp up Maine’s production of kelp, and a processor that’s seeded the young sector’s growth is responding by opening a 27,000 square foot plant in Biddeford, Maine.
Atlantic Sea Farms CEO Briana Warner says that in the last two seasons, the 24 farmers who supply kelp to the company have increased their landings by 12,000%, to roughly 700,000 pounds of seaweed this year. Most of them are lobstermen who own their own boats, looking for off-season income.
“So our partner farmers constitute around 95 percent of all the seaweed that’s grown in the state of Maine, and over 80 percent of what’s grown in the entire United States. So what that means is that fishermen are the ones who are singlehandedly growing the kelp industry in the United States, and they’re fishermen from Maine,” Warner says.
Before the pandemic, Atlantic Sea Farms was focused mostly on institutional buyers such as food-service companies and restaurant chains. But as those markets slowed or shut down in 2020, Atlantic pivoted to retail buyers for value-added products such as seaweed salad and kelp cubes (for smoothies).