Insights from South Korea’s Seaweed Industry: What can we learn from a developed seaweed market?

From May 11 to 15, Potato Impact Partners joined a seaweed learning trip, along with 21 other participants, to South Korea, organized by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) with support from Builders Vision. We were hosted by Dr. Jang Kim and his team at Incheon University. The goal of the investor-focused trip was to deepen understanding of the seaweed value chain in one of the most developed and mature markets in the world.

The participants of the South Korea Seaweed Industry Learning Trip, organized by the World Wildlife Fund with support from Builders Vision.

Over the course of the week in Wando, the “seaweed capital” of South Korea, we visited nearly every aspect of the seaweed value chain, from seaweed nurseries and seeding facilities to cultivation sites and processing operations. We had the opportunity to speak with a wide range of stakeholders across the industry, including farmers, researchers, processors, and Daesang Corporation, Korea’s second-largest consumer food company.

We left Korea with a deep appreciation for both the maturity of South Korea’s seaweed sector and the ecosystem support in place to build a scalable, resilient seaweed industry.

Here are some of our key learnings and impressions from the trip.

1. Climate adaptation is already shaping the industry

Saccharina japonica cultivation line in Korea

As impact investors, we have climate change at the top of mind. This theme was also prevalent among various stakeholders in the Korean seaweed industry as it already presents a productivity, even survival, challenge.

Stakeholders we met spoke about warming waters which shift and shorten cultivation and harvest cycles of pyropia, Korea’s most prized seaweed variety that supports the multibillion-dollar gim or laver (edible seaweed) industry. The industry is actively adapting through the research and development of heat- and stress-tolerant strains and cultivars, and turning to more land-based seeding and cultivation.

This brought up an interesting tension: while we often position seaweed as having positive impacts on climate resilience, the industry itself is also vulnerable to climate risk. As often mentioned on the trip, science moves slower than climate change, but we must still continue to develop and innovate to build a resilient industry.

2. Simplicity can outperform complex engineering

One of our surprising observations was the coexistence of highly sophisticated research capabilities alongside lower-tech and manual operational practices.

In many areas of the value chain, the local farmers rely on simple, practical systems. For example, seeding is often performed on oyster shells, thanks to a local traditional practice. Not every challenge was being solved with advanced automation or cutting-edge hardware.

For example, at the nursery, the light-control curtains are operated entirely manually. Similarly, instead of relying on complex filtration systems, seawater is simply left to settle so that sediment sinks to the bottom, allowing the cleanest water from the top to be used. Furthermore, in onshore seeding, attaching the lines to seeding wheels is also a manual process.

Light-controlled curtains are operated manually at seaweed nurseries in Korea.

This highlighted an important “unlearning” for us. As investors backing innovation, we are used to assuming that technology and automation drive advances, and higher valuations.

However, the case of South Korea challenges us to revisit our conceptions. It could be that sometimes, simple works best and we don’t always need complex systems.

3. There are still major operational bottlenecks

Despite the industry’s maturity, challenges remain.

South Korea is reaching its production capacity limit and increasing production of seaweed biomass will require looking to new horizons. One example is looking into offshore cultivation and land-based farming, rather than nearshore cultivation, which is nearing full capacity. However, this shift represents technical and economic hurdles, as setting up new systems will require infrastructure, engineering, and funding.

Furthermore, the seaweed industry in Korea is very generational. Parents pass down the family business, whether it’s farming, seeding, or processing, to their children. However, with the younger generation keen to seek work opportunities elsewhere, succession of the business (and thus the industry) can be an issue. While the industry benefits from migrant workers, there was also discussion of how developing the younger generation and sparking interest in them will be important to continue the flourishing seaweed industry.

4. The level of government involvement and collaboration is astounding

Q&A session with leaders from across the seaweed value chain, including farming, processing, government, and research.

From hatcheries and breeding programs to processing infrastructure and farmer cooperatives, government involvement exists at nearly every layer of the value chain. This support, whether in the form of strong policies or funding, such as farmer insurance or grants to research institutions, has helped create a rich ecosystem that would have been difficult for the private sector to build alone.

5. Collaboration accelerates industry growth

Another observation was the high degree of coordination and collaboration across the ecosystem. We visited a processing facility that offers entrepreneurs technical knowledge and production sites to pilot produce some of their products. Startups communicate with researchers at the company and receive support to develop their products together. The company also organizes meetings with startups twice a year, and startups also have their own community as well. If the startups are successful using the company’s facilities and would like to set up their own, the company would also help them build their own facility.

For emerging seaweed markets in the U.S. and Europe, this raises the question: what forms of public-private collaboration are necessary to accelerate industry development? While it may not be realistic to replicate South Korea’s model directly, the importance of long-term institutional support is worth considering.

Concluding Thoughts and Looking Ahead

Participants touring seaweed farms by boat during the field visit.

Our week in Wando reinforced that building a scalable seaweed industry requires far more than simply growing biomass. It requires coordinated infrastructure, long-term market development, institutional support, farmer organization, and deep integration across the value chain.

It really showed us that successful ecosystems evolve over decades. There is much that emerging seaweed markets can learn from South Korea — not by copying the model outright, but by thoughtfully adapting its best practices to local contexts. After all, regional problems will require regional solutions.

One of the clearest examples of this is the strength of existing seaweed markets in South Korea and across Asia. Seaweed is already deeply integrated into regional food systems and industrial supply chains. For example, South Korea’s abalone industry relies heavily on kelp as feed, while seaweed itself is a staple ingredient across many parts of the region. Demand already exists, and the industry has evolved to support it.

As seaweed industries emerge in Europe and North America, it is important to remember that markets drive industries — not the other way around. Entrepreneurs should not build products first and hope demand follows. Instead, the market and end-user demand need to be clearly understood from the outset.

In many cases, the opportunity is not to build entirely new value chains around seaweed, but rather to bring seaweed into existing value chains where it can create value more naturally and efficiently.

One last lesson that stayed with us came from Dr. Jang, who emphasized the importance of “making the pie bigger.” Rather than focusing solely on competition and capturing market share, stakeholders across the ecosystem should work collectively to expand the overall market and create more opportunities for everyone involved. As the industry grows, there is room for more collaboration, more innovation, and more shared success across the value chain.

Our team left Wando energized by the scale of opportunity ahead. We’re grateful to everyone who made time to come on the trip and share their time, insights, and experiences with us.

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About the Author: Tessa Charupatanapongse is Investment Lead at Potato Impact Partners, an impact investor spurring positive contributions to food security, climate action, and the resilience of coastal communities through investments in sustainable seaweed innovation. Tessa leads deal sourcing and due diligence and drives ecosystem building within the sustainable seaweed aquaculture value chain.

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