Kelp Blue has secured a 15-year commercial license for cultivating Giant Kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) across a 6,400-hectare offshore site.
Kelp Blue Namibia Managing Director, Fabian Shaanika, said the license is expected to facilitate significant business expansion and enhance carbon sequestration efforts.
“Having a longer tenor and a bigger scale allows us to scale up this business as our business model relies on a scale both from a product output perspective and from a carbon sequestration standpoint,” he told The Brief.
Kelp Blue aims to sequester 30,000 tons of carbon annually by 2025, and over 1 million tonnes by 2050 (in Namibia).
He said during the pilot phase, the company had harvested over 50 tonnes of seaweed resulting in over 50 thousand litres of final product.
“The licence allows us to scale up these volumes and eventually we will produce over 40 million litres of biostimulant per annum in future,” Shaanika said.
With regards to markets, he said the company was targeting new export markets such as Latin America.
“Our current market focus is Europe with immediate plans to expand into Latin America as well sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said the company’s Biostimulant organic fertiliser was still to be approved in Namibia despite having secured approval in over 10 countries worldwide.
“We submitted our application earlier this year to the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, soon after receiving our Environmental Clearance Certificate from the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism. Our product is approved in well over 10 countries globally, with registration in progress in 30 more countries,” Shaanika said.
“Product registration delays essentially mean that we are not able to sell the products locally (in Namibia). It also means that we are unable to export the product as a 100% final product from Namibia. It impedes full local beneficiation.”
Biostimulant is an organic fertiliser that not only enhances plant growth by providing micro- and macronutrients but it also regenerates the soil through the promotion of plant growth-promoting bacteria and pathogen antagonists in suppressive soils- something that, in general, chemical fertilisers are unable to do.
Within the first half of the year, two shipments with seaweed extract were exported to the Netherlands to service a N$416.59 million (US$23 million) sales agreement and to continue field trials.
By 2027, Kelp Blue anticipates employing up to 400 people in Namibia, maintaining its commitment to diversity and inclusiveness.
“Kelp Blue employs 92 people in Namibia, with 96% being Namibians. Nearly 50% are female, and over 50% are from Lüderitz. Around 30% hold a BSc or MSc degree. The company spends about 6% of its budget on staff training, and the average employee age is 26,” he said.
Kelp Blue’s kelp forests in Shearwater Bay have boosted resident marine species from 135 to nearly 800 species.
“Many commercially important species such as mullet, hake, and crayfish, now lay their eggs in the kelp forest, which increases the juvenile survival rate by perhaps 100x,” said Shaanika.
The company is planning to raise N$1.4 billion through the world’s first commercial blue bonds, scheduled to debut on the Namibian Stock Exchange in late 2024.
