Sustainable upscaling of the seaweed industry in Scandinavia and the Nordics
When it comes to aquaculture, whether fish, shellfish, or algae, Asia, and China in particular, is the dominant player. There are huge algae farms in China, each producing more than the entire European algae industry. This is therefore an area where European and Swedish algae farmers can learn from an example driven by economic growth and competition. The Chinese example can be used as a benchmark for an emerging European industry characterized by upscaling and different environmental and political conditions.
This is where Vita Weitong Xu, a KTH doctoral student in Blue Food with a focus on industrial ecology in seafood production, uses methods such as life cycle analysis, material flow analysis, and environmental and risk assessment. She works to understand and analyze large-scale algae production and generate knowledge that can benefit Swedish growers, while also offering knowledge about sustainable production that Chinese companies can learn from.
“Chinese blue food companies know how to farm efficiently at a large scale but in general they haven’t had a strong focus on sustainability, explains Vita Weitong Xu. There are also large differences between regions, companies and the technologies they use.”
Vita Weitong Xu cites the example of some companies using plastic frames for algae spores, while others use a metal version for the same stage of cultivation. While the first method results in plastic pollution when the frames break down and wear out, the latter has higher initial energy consumption. The company structures differ from those in Sweden, and some other differences are the characteristics of the species, water temperature, currents, and different co-cultivation systems for algae cultivation.
In her work, Vita Weitong Xu tries to get a whole picture of the industry through gaining deeper understanding of mega-scale seaweed production, quantifying synergies, and searching for hotspots of environmental impact, while seeking to shed light on regional differences. This is more difficult than looking at one specific farm.
“Large-scale data collection can be challenging, as many Chinese companies still have limited exposure to sustainable engineering principles and remain primarily focused on economic growth. As a result, we invest considerable time in educating them about different dimensions of sustainable development, the restrictions and policies that influence international trade, supporting improvements in internal energy and cost management, and introducing opportunities within the emerging Chinese blue carbon market, which is still immature but increasingly attractive.”
The highly efficient and competitive farming in China has resulted in a low market value for seaweed. This can be challenging for small and medium size companies that only produce the raw material, particularly in terms of the economic costs of meeting international sustainability standards.
“The European seaweed industry is currently less efficient, but it has a stronger focus on sustainability and aims to deliver the sector’s potential benefits while driving growth, including cleaner coastal environments, new income streams for rural communities and fishers, and biodiversity gains, among others. Different paths could be interesting moving forward. Should they learn from the Chinese experience and upscale here as well, in spite of lower customer demand and higher labour costs? Or should they explore other business models based on multi farming, CO2 sequestration or something else? The Swedish seaweed industry will never become huge, but local, sustainable farms can have opportunities attracting local investments. I hope that my work will give guidance and help the Swedish industry move forward.”
Vita Weitong Xu’s doctoral studies are part of a collaboration between KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. Apart from having a contact at the university in Shanghai she is planning annual trips to China together with her supervisors to collect data. Originally being from Guangzho, China, she speaks the Mandarin and Cantonese languages, something she will benefit from when visiting local farms.
During her first year of doctoral studies, Vita Weitong Xu has taken several mandatory courses, and she looks forward to start making interviews to help her quantify qualitative data and begin modelling. Later, she is planning to produce scientific papers, several with the other joint doctoral student Xiu Gao, who is a highly skilled lab technicians and marine biologist, targeting different dimensions of sustainable seaweed industry. She is also planning for a paper with fellow KTH and Blue Food doctoral student Evangelia Zioga.
The project is particularly relevant to research areas 1. Sustainability and resilience, 4. Primary production – aquaculture, and 6. Processing and product development.
Principal supervisor
Fredrik Gröndahl, KTH
Assistant supervisor
Jean-Baptiste Thomas, KTH
Jiechen Wu, KTH
Ji Li, Shanghai Jiaotong University