European Algae Biomass president sees expansion of algae products in daily life, calls for improved EU algae market

Driven by a vision to advance Europe’s algae sector, Carlos Unamunzaga, President of the European Algae Biomass Association, spoke with Euractiv’s Fiona Alston about his plans to raise the profile of algae in the public eye.  

Unamunzaga has been invested in algae since studying marine science at Cadiz in the south of Spain; he discovered his passion for photosynthetic, eukaryotic organisms (algae) and was fascinated by their extraordinary potential.

He made the jump from academia to industry by starting up a biotech microalgae research and production company, Fitoplancton Marino, based in Cadiz, with products and functional ingredients “that contribute to improving the good health and quality of life of our consumers.”

Representing industry

One of the key advantages Unamunzaga brings to his presidential role with the European Algae Biomass Association (EABA) is his industry experience. Predominantly, past presidents have come from an academic background, and with the EABA’s membership now made up of around 65% from industry, he’s in a unique position to elevate that portion of the sector.

He recalls his own experience of his move from academia to industry he says in the early stages: “The microalgae sector was a bit underdeveloped for some applications - today, there's so many technologies, and things are much easier than when I started. It was a struggle to be recognised in many legislations because algae were just sold as seaweeds - there was no legislation specifically for microalgae at that time.”

Unamunzaga has had the advantage of being involved in the sector as it has grown, and his tenure is now all about bringing more public awareness not only to the benefits of algae in the food sector but also to the many use cases they have and their impact on the future of the planet.

Support from The Commission

The EABA has made clear in its manifesto its plans for the future of the algae sector, and Unamunzaga says that the European Commission needs to be involved in this.

“It's already doing a lot of great things; the Algae Initiative linked to the Green Deal, for example, where there's up to 23 points that they are focusing on in which they want to propel the potential of algae in Europe – proving its willingness to help.”

“Now, if that helps, and it's enough. I'm not sure. It's really about getting the support of The Commission, but also from politicians and all together trying to develop activities in which we involve the algae sector and products in our daily lives.”

Getting competitive

Speaking about making algae products more competitive in the market where similar products can be chemically produced for less, at least for now, he says: “We need to decide - and this is a politician's responsibility - which direction we want to take for our future, and not just for algae, in general, for our food safety environment.”

Scaling the sector has its difficulties, and Unamunzaga recognises the bottlenecks, which include production licensing, technology to handle large-scale production and regulatory compliance.

“It's not about limited resources in technology, it’s about investment, right? If you want to make a product that competes with other products in the market, it’s based on the scale; you need to have the ability to jump to that scale. It would be good to have like a credit or a grant that compensates producers,” he explains.

“The reality is that the ingredients that are unique to algae - are the ones that have evolved in the market. Why? Because you cannot find alternatives for those. For example, for those compounds from seaweeds, hydrocolloids like carrageenan, agar, and alginate and other compounds that are developed for food additives - maybe it’s just a matter of trying to identify which ones could be competitive with minimal or significant help in production so it becomes competitive, and then we can grow that opportunity In the market.”

Equalising standards

Keen to uphold the high standards of algae products produced in the EU, the EABA is calling for import standards to be equal to EU standards. Not only can products be produced in Asia cheaper, but the quality does not meet the same as its EU counterparts, according to Unamunzaga.

The Asian and US markets have proven beneficial to EU producers in terms of getting their products beyond local regions. The legislation in both these markets means producers can have their products tried and tested several years before it is approved to be sold in the EU, a time scale Unamunzaga wants to tackle as part of the EABA manifesto.

“When you asked me if algae are going to save the world – “No”. But, could it have an impact? Yes - like many other solutions, and all different sustainable solutions together, will make our lives better, and that's the first step,” says Unamunzaga.

“It is not about trying to see which is the next generation protein source because It's not just one, there are probably many, from bacteria, from yeast, from algae, from insects, even in feeds - if we had a fraction of the surface that’s used by traditional agriculture, used for algae, we would have a huge impact, because the visibility of the product in the market would be huge compared to what we have today,” he said.

Looking forward

So, what does the future look like for algae production in the EU?

“It's more lobbying, or trying to be more present within the decisions that are taken that affect our environment - which is regulations and grants and things that The Commission is doing around the food sector or other industrial sectors in which we want to get our opportunity and jump in,” he said.

[By Fiona Alston I Edited by Brian Maguire | Euractiv's Advocacy Lab ]