On July 7 at 14 (CET Brussels time), Sander van den Burg will give an EAStalk webinar on "Sustainable seaweed production in Europe: economic and environmental insights from the GENIALG project".

Sander van den Burg is senior researcher Aquaculture and Mariculture at Wageningen Economic Research, the Netherlands. An environmental scientist by training, his projects focus on the sustainable development of aquaculture value chains. Since 2011, Sander studies the development of seaweed value chains, including economic feasibility, Life Cycle Impacts as well as valuation of ecosystem services and True Pricing. He is currently involved in the Horizon 2020 projects GENIALG, UNITED, and FutureEUAqua and various other national and international research projects.

The cultivation and use of seaweeds in Europe is seen as solution to societal challenges such as food and resource security, Blue Growth, and climate mitigation. There is also an interest in the ecosystem services provided by seaweed cultivation, such as carbon sequestration and biodiversity enhancement, and how these can be valued. In this webinar, Sander van den Burg (Wageningen Economic Research) will zoom in on the feasibility of producing and processing seaweeds in Europa from an economic and market perspective. Drawing upon results on the Horizon 2020 project GENIALG, the webinar will discuss current trends in seaweed cultivation and use and focus in detail on the developments in the five markets studied in GENIALG: alginate, bio-stimulants, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and bioplastics. The webinar will end with recommendation for future development of European seaweed industry.

The video is available here: