Locally-grown seaweed has been selling out faster than producers can make it.
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Pia Winberg opened a pilot farm in Bomaderry a year and a half ago.
The tiny farm, just .05 of a hectare, produces a unique form of Australian seaweed using nutrients from waste water at Manildra.
“It’s a world first, in terms of offsetting waste from a flour refinery,” she said.
It’s an environmentally sustainable product – seaweed captures tonnes of carbon and is grown in salt water.
Products from the Bomaderry seaweed farm are sold online and at shops in Berry and Mollymook.
Ms Winberg’s optimism about the venture has been buoyed by a successful trip to a Sydney expo, where she cleared all stock last week.
“I’ve been talking to investors,” she said.
“We have five staff now and we’re looking to expand and employ 30 staff within a year.”
Seaweed is a multi-billion dollar industry internationally, and Australia hardly contributes to it.
At a climate forum at Bomaderry Bowling Club on Thursday, Dr Winberg said western countries needed to be more open to the idea of seaweed as a food source.
She said it has a number of health benefits, including being protein and calcium rich.
A packet of 10 per cent seaweed pasta will set you back $9.
Dr Winberg said that as demand increases for the product, and business grows, the price will go down.
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