Main raw material: Ascophyllum nodosum imported from Canada
Production technology: biological enzymatic
In many coastal regions, raw seaweed has been used for millennia to improve the productivity of farming systems. Then, in the latter half of the 20th century the use of seaweed extracts on crops became widespread globally. Farmers using these extracts repeatedly reported positive results on crop yield and quality.
As these results could not simply be correlated to the seaweed extract’s elemental nutrient content, it took time for a scientific explanation for these effects to catch up. As we have gained a clearer understanding of algal biochemistry and the associated modes of action, we no longer considered seaweed extracts to be fertilizers, and instead classify them as one of the key product classes in the rapidly developing sector of biostimulants.