Thirty years of wild Galician seaweed: Algamar is ready for its next chapter

2026-10-30

When Algamar started working with seaweed in 1996, hardly anyone in Europe saw it as everyday food. Thirty years later, the Galician company is a pioneer in organic seaweed for human consumption, and ready to bring its wild, hand-harvested seaweed to chefs, food producers and new markets.

Álvaro Lugo, Commercial Manager at Algamar, has spent his career in exports and organic products. “Thirty years ago, it was like preaching in the desert,” he says. “Now people hear about it, and they know it is something healthy.”

Why import what grows on your doorstep?

Algamar was founded by brothers Clemente and Fermín. Clemente followed a macrobiotic diet and was importing seaweed from Asia, which raised an obvious question: why not use what grows along their own coast?

Galicia is home to more than 750 seaweed species. It curiously lies between the same parallels as Japan, and nutrient-rich upwelling feeds the entire coastline. According to Lugo, no other region in Europe has a comparable biomass. Independent organic stores are still the core of the business, alongside a growing focus on food service and the food industry.

Wild, organic and harvested by hand

Algamar does not cultivate seaweed. Everything it sells is wild. Much of the Galician coast is protected and monitored daily by the competent authorities. Each year, Algamar submits a harvesting plan to the Ministry of Agriculture and its organic certifier. Being very strict in its compliance.

“Organic is the core of our business,” says Lugo.

Harvesting is done by experienced divers, trained by Algamar’s marine biologist. They cut only the leaves, where most minerals and vitamins are found, and leave the stem and holdfast on the rock so the seaweed regrows the following year. “If you tear everything out, it can take five or six years to grow back.”

Algamar’s divers harvest wild seaweed by hand along the Galician coast.

From sea to shelf within 24 hours

Seaweed harvested in the morning is processed the same afternoon. It is cleaned of the possible impurities, then inspected by hand and dried below 42°C to preserve its nutrients and flavour. It can also be supplied frozen, preserved in salt or canned. Dried seaweed is available from fine powder to large flakes, and customers can request a specific size.

Two years ago, Algamar achieved IFS Food certification, a strict quality standard demanded by the food industry. It opens the door to supplying seaweed as an ingredient, both for its nutritional value and as a natural flavour enhancer.

Seaweed visually inspected.

From Kombu to Tartares

Algamar works mainly with seven species, including Kombu, Sea Spaghetti, Sea Lettuce, Codium, Dulse and Irish Moss. Dried seaweed remains its best-selling product, alongside pâtés, tartares, and canned seaweed preserved in nothing else but seawater.

For first-timers, Lugo recommends a pâté or the red pesto. “They don’t have such a strong sea taste. Once people want to be more adventurous, they can try the powdered seaweed.”

The biggest barrier, he says, is that most of Europe has no tradition of eating seaweed. Yet it works with meat, vegetables, rice, desserts and even cocktails. “It doesn’t matter if you are a two-star Michelin restaurant or a beach bar. It is all about creativity. We have to offer seaweed in easy-to-use formats.”

Dried seaweed is Algamar’s core business, alongside a wide range of seaweed-based products.

Mar de Ardora at Gastvrij Rotterdam

At the European Seaweed Pavilion at Gastvrij Rotterdam, Algamar presented Mar de Ardora, its brand for the hospitality sector. The name refers to the bioluminescence that lights up the sea at night.

Visitors discovered the one-kilo bags, seaweed powders, canned seaweed, pâtés and delicious tartares. Lugo is especially proud of the canned wakame. “Close your eyes and it tastes like an oyster.”

For chefs, consistency matters. Algamar dries its seaweed in whole sheets, so every delivery has the same format and weight. Volume is rarely an issue either. “People ask me how much we can harvest. I ask them: how much do you need?”

Mar de Ardora is Algamar’s brand for chefs and the hospitality sector. In this picture it is presented by Alvaro to chefs at food trade event Gastvrij Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Cleaner labels and one European voice

Lugo sees the greatest opportunity in the demand for healthy food and clean labels. Seaweed can replace additives and help reduce salt. “In powder, it is a natural flavour enhancer. You may not even notice it’s there.”

Algamar has always been very independent, but Lugo believes the sector needs one voice towards the EU, for example on the rules around iodine in kombu. As a wild harvester in a largely cultivated sector, Algamar also hopes to bring a different perspective, and to supply high-quality raw seaweed to partners across the network.

“Business is going well and we have more and more capacity,” says Lugo. “Now all we need to do is open new markets. We are ready to run.”

Want to know more? Visit the Algamar website.