BIZERTE — Wading knee-deep in the calm waters of a lagoon, workers in northern Tunisia harvest red seaweed, in a nation dubbed a Mediterranean “trailblazer” in cultivating the in-demand plant.
Red seaweed or algae is used for gelling, thickening and texturing agents that are increasingly asubstitute for animal-based products in processed foods, and it is also being used increasingly in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
The harvest, the Selt Marine company’s first on an industrial scale, comes after years of research and a wait of more than two decades for authorization to use the lagoons, said French-Tunisian entrepreneur Mounir Bouklout.
Several countr…
Keep on reading: Tunisia ‘trailblazer’ in Mediterranean seaweed farming