Exports of products made from seaweed generated revenues totalling USD 114 million in the first five months of 2013, according to the Fisheries Development Institute (IFOP).
According to the Bulletin of Fisheries and Aquaculture Exports issued by Institute, the figure is 9.2 per cent higher than that obtained in the same period last year.
Meanwhile, the contribution of these products to the total revenues obtained through exports of the aquaculture-fisheries sector of Chile was 5.2 per cent.
As it has been detailed in the newsletter belonging to IFOP, the average FOB price of all seaweed products exported in the first five months of 2013 was USD 2,985 per tonne, up 5.3 per cent more than in the same period in 2012.
In terms of volume, the main seaweed-based products exported until last May were dried seaweed (90.8 per cent), carrageenan (5.6 per cent) and agar agar (1.9 per cent).
As to the income received in the period from January to May, most of it came from dried seaweed, which contributed 51.1 per cent. The sales of carrageenan abroad contributed 24.4 per cent, while those of agar agar represented 15.3 per cent of the total value.
IFOP newsletter states that the total seaweed products exported in May reached 8,071 tonnes, an increase of 20.3 per cent compared with the same month traded last year.
Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Santiago de Chile (Usach) are studying three species of seaweed in the Region of Magallanes so that they can be used in the development of antibacterial patches and enteric-gastric drug encapsulation.
The study, titled Soluble polysaccharides of seaweed in the Region of Magallanes, is a project funded by the Department of Scientific and Technological Research (Dicyt) of the Vice-Rector for Research, Development and Innovation, and is directed by Betty Matsuhiro, a researcher at the Department of Environmental Sciences of the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of the Usach.
The three species on which the study is focused are the seaweed Mazzaella laminarioides, Sarcothalia crispata and Ahnfeltia alicata.
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