Eun Kyoung Hwang
Fisheries Seed and Breeding Research Institute, National Institute of Fisheries Science, Haenam 59002, Republic of Korea
Korea has a well-established seaweed industry ranked 3rd among the world’s seaweed-producing countries and is the world’s leader in Pyropia exports. The impetus for the seaweed industry’s growth in Korea stems from a combination of a national preference for seaweed cultivation and significant investment to industry capabilities and technologies. In 2019, Korea produced 1,812,765 tons of seaweed out of a worldwide production of 34,568,073 tons (wet wt.). Although Saccharina japonica accounts for the largest production biomass (662,557 tons), Pyropia is the most economically important seaweed species in Korea, accounting for 66% of the total seaweed production value. In recent years, industry growth has been achieved through the adoption of technologies that lead to increased productivity. Significant work has gone into developing more productive strains of key seaweed species, and in 2012 the Korean government began to certify seaweed varieties. To date, 28 seaweed cultivars have been registered including 22 Pyropia, 5 Undaria and 1 Saccharina (APVC 2022). The direction of seaweed breeding for circular economy in Korea is to develop varieties that increase economic feasibility, such as high temperature and disease-resistant, and functional varieties of Pyropia, and to secure competitiveness of other industries such as restoring coastal environments and securing stable food sources of abalone industry of Saccharina and Undaria.