Sustainable Seaweed
Red Seaweed Promise™ - leading the industry towards a thriving red seaweed sector for generations to come.
To help ensure a long-term sustainable red seaweed supply chain, Cargill has launched the Red Seaweed Promise™. The program is specifically designed to address key sustainability challenges for the harvesting and cultivation of red seaweed, while enhancing producer livelihoods, supporting local communities and conserving the marine environment. Red seaweed is the raw material needed to produce carrageenan, a texturizer used in various applications such as dairy, confectionary and personal care products.
The program also answers food industry and consumers’ needs for more sustainable food ingredients, with a commitment to source 60 percent sustainable red seaweed by 2025.
Sustainable Seaweed Commitment
It is our ambition to enable seaweed producers and their communities to achieve better incomes and living standards in a way that will accelerate progress towards a sustainable and transparent global seaweed supply chain by focusing our investments and efforts across four priority areas.
Empower Seaweed Producers
Provide training, coaching and tools to support best environmental, and safe production practices.
Strengthen Partnerships
Leverage Cargill's network to strengthen the close partnerships with suppliers to achieve a sustainable red seaweed supply chain.
Improving production and harvesting practices
Develop accessible, responsible and resilient production and harvesting systems.
Community Support
Strengthen seaweed producers and their communities, ensure no child or forced labor, promote gender equality and break down barriers to economic empowerment.
Continuous Improvement
To reaffirm our long term commitment to red seaweed producers and their communities specific continuous improvement action plans are developed specifically matching the regions where Cargill sources.
Independently verified
The program is independently assessed and verified by Proforest - a world leader in supporting the sustainable management and sourcing of natural resources and smallholder development.
The Cargill supply chains assessed to date by Proforest have been rated as sustainable.
Carrageenans
Cargill offers one of the widest ranges of commercially available carrageenans, employing proven production processes and using a large variety of different types of red seaweeds (Rhodophyceae) from the Gigartinales group.