What looks like a resort platform located off an idyllic white sand beach in Tobangkaw, an island-village in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, is actually a solar drier for the seaweed harvests of local farmers. The platform was built by USAID’s Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) Program in partnership with the municipal government to help improve the quality of seaweed that the growers, including former combatants of the Moro National Liberation Front, can then sell at higher prices to buyers in Zamboanga City and Cebu.
The seaweeds are air-dried by the farmers prior to collection by consolidators. The consolidators bale the weed and ship via commercial boats from the Sulu islands to Zamboanga.
The weed is then either sold to the two processing plants in Zamboanga or transshipped on commercial vessels to Cebu. Once in Cebu, most of the weed is bought by Cebu-based processing plants, although a significant portion of dried seaweed is exported to processing plants in China and EU.
The world market for sea plants is estimated at $3.5 billion annually, with Japan, the U.S. and China purchasing more than 50 percent of the worldwide supply.
