Have you ever tried a salad with sea lettuce? A quiche with long stalk or a risotto with seaweed? Have you ever imagined eating an old woman’s hair? Well, one of ALGAplus’s main missions is to promote the consumption of locally and sustainably cultivated macroalgae, bringing them to the table (and beyond) of more and more people.
Based in Ílhavo, ALGAplus is dedicated to the controlled and sustainable cultivation of native macroalgae, using an innovative production system with organic certification. It is “the only company in Europe doing this on a commercial scale,” says biologist Helena Abreu, co-founder and manager.
Since its founding, the company has received around 2 million euros in European funding, “crucial” support that has allowed “the development of our activities, both in terms of infrastructure capacity and the qualification of human resources,” says Helena, who leads a technical team of 15 people, including biologists and aquaculture operators.
In its early years, ALGAplus used water from fish farming tanks managed by other companies for macroalgae production. Since 2018, with 375,000 euros in European funding from the Mar2020 Operational Program, the company has also dedicated itself to the organic production of fish, specifically sea bass and gilthead bream.
“The activity we develop aligns with the EU’s blue growth plans related to the need to produce more food – because we are more and more [people on the planet] – and to obtain this food from sustainable resources,” she explains, acknowledging that “without EU co-financing, ALGAplus would hardly exist."
The idea that led to the creation of ALGAplus dates to 2006, when Helena was pursuing her PhD at CIIMAR – Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research – at the University of Porto. The biologist was part of a macroalgae aquaculture project developed in partnership with universities in Chile and the United States. With extensive knowledge in the field and recognizing the commercial potential of macroalgae production, Helena decided to create a company to meet the growing market needs, particularly in the food and cosmetics sectors.
ALGAplus was founded in 2012, setting up in the former facilities of a fish farm near the Boco canal of the Ria de Aveiro. The biologists knew that “the Ria de Aveiro has optimal conditions, in terms of temperature, water quality, and the number of sunlight hours per year” for algae cultivation. Additionally, “the availability of these former salt marshes, also used for fish farming, for implementing a business like this” was a significant factor in the decision.
Helena recalls that in the initial approaches to local fish farmers, most considered the project “crazy.” “They thought we were nuts for wanting to cultivate algae. It’s funny, perhaps worrying, and somewhat curious that the two people who showed the most open-mindedness and welcomed our idea were the two oldest fish producers in the Ria de Aveiro: Mr. Manuel Caçoilo, who passed away in 2017, and Mr. Ratola.” Due to ease of access, the founders of ALGAplus chose Manuel Caçoilo’s facilities for the production unit.
The choice of location was also influenced by the proximity to the university, the possibility of integrating into a business network with a tradition in marine products, and the cultural heritage of a region marked by the historical harvesting of algae and other aquatic plants (moliço).
When starting ALGAplus, “the first thing to do was validate the process,” says Helena Abreu. They needed to determine which species could be produced there, design prototypes, optimize cultivation protocols, and refine the business model to ensure environmental sustainability and the best quality/price ratio for the products. In all this, ALGAplus was a pioneer.
In 2013, the company produced its first algae, but it was 2014 that marked the beginning of commercial activity. “From the start, we wanted to establish ourselves as a production company rather than in the areas of biotechnology and innovation services, where there are already many companies,” says Helena. “What we wanted was to have products on the market”.
At ALGAplus, various species of macroalgae are produced, which, being native to the Atlantic coast, are perfectly adapted to the climatic conditions and the water in the tanks where they are found, which is naturally renewed through tidal cycles.
As their names suggest – sea lettuce, long stalk, sea purslane, old woman’s hair, or Atlantic nori, also known as seaweed – all these algae have a tradition of consumption in Portugal, particularly among very poor coastal communities. “They were very nutritious food that satisfied hunger. People knew how to harvest and consume them,” says Helena Abreu, noting that ALGAplus is trying to “recover this heritage by bringing the modern component of sustainable cultivation and biotechnology.”
With an annual production of around 40 tons, ALGAplus sells about 80 percent of the algae it produces in bulk and under the ALGA+ brand. The remaining 20 percent of the business volume corresponds to products sold directly to consumers. Tok de Mar is the commercial brand of ALGAplus for selling food products based on macroalgae with organic certification (dehydrated algae, whole or powdered, as well as fresh algae preserved in salt, sardine preserves with algae, or fleur de sel with algae flakes). These products are sold through the company’s online store, as well as in specialized retail, organic product stores, or the restaurant sector. “We work with premium chefs – almost all Michelin-starred restaurants in Portugal are our clients – and also with traditional Portuguese cuisine restaurants – like Bem Haja in Aveiro,” she lists.
There is also Sea Originals, a wellness product brand for the market, including a thalassotherapy kit with an exfoliating salt and a sea purslane-based compound for skin hydration, and Algaessence. The latter, created in partnership with the Leiria-based company Allmicroalgae, is used to sell a mix of micro and macroalgae. “It is a product developed by nutritionists that balances macronutrients – such as protein and fiber – and micronutrients – such as iodine, iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium. Our idea was to create a 100 percent nutritionally rich product, a superfood,” shares Helena Abreu.
With clients in over twenty countries worldwide, more than 75 percent of ALGAplus’s production is for export. Currently, boosted by its latest shareholders – Sapec Portugal – the Ílhavo-based company is preparing to install a new production system, developed in partnership with INEGI – Institute of Science and Innovation in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering – in Porto. The new technology will accelerate business growth, with production expected to reach 170 tons of algae by 2022.
Every year, 30 million tons of algae are produced worldwide, mostly in Asia. In Portugal, “there is still a long way to go, but people are increasingly curious about algae consumption and its various uses,” says Ana Ribeiro, marketing manager at ALGAplus.
The Ílhavo-based company is committed to promoting and energizing the algae sector both nationally – keeping “open doors” for school and community visits and organizing gastronomic and cultural events that help demystify cooking with algae and promote their health benefits – and at the European and global levels. Notably, in addition to being a co-founder of Proalga – the Portuguese Association of Algae Producers – Helena Abreu is vice-president of the International Seaweed Association. Starting in 2022, she is expected to assume the presidency of this, the largest global association in the sector.
* Editorial work produced in collaboration with the European Commission in Portugal