Port Alberni is about to have a new industry, as a seaweed processing centre.
Cascadia Seafoods and the Nuu-chah-nulth Seafood partnership are working with the City and Port Alberni Port Authority to develop a seafood processing hub in the former Port Fish building on Harbour Road.
The company will grow Sugar Kelp alongside existing shellfish tenures.
Cascadia president Michael Williamson says BC is about to become a world-leader in seaweed production.
“British Columbia and Vancouver Island is home to about 630 native species of seaweed – one of the most prolific in the world,” he said. “We picked one that’s in pretty high demand in the consumer market and it’s one of the largest percentage of seaweed in the world is Sugar Kelp and BC is a great place to grow that.”
Williamson says BC is about to become a world-leader in seaweed production, which is being called a “food of the future” due the effects of climate change on terrestrial agriculture.
He said they plan to start out with two, single hectare growing locations and hire 3 to 5 people, hopefully expanding to a hundred one-hectare farms up and down the west coast of the island.
