BTOR
February 25th- March 8th, 2024
Republic of Korea
Incheon Metropolitan City, Busan Metropolitan City, Jeollanam-Do Province (Wando County, Naju City), Sejong City, and Seoul Metropolitan City
Background
Korea ranks among the top three largest seaweed producers in the world. The government of the Republic of Korea is developing its seaweed industry as an export-driven food industry worth USD 750 million by 2024. In recent years, the Republic of Korea has achieved industry growth through technologies that have increased productivity. These technologies have been applied across all areas of the industry, from strain selection to hatchery and growing technologies, harvesting, and processing.
There is scope for many developing African and Southeast Asian countries with substantial coastal areas to enter the market and reap the benefits of the growing demand in this sector. However, in addition to lacking financial resources, these countries need technology and adequate knowledge to invest strategically in the seaweed sector. Although seaweed farming is an inexpensive, sustainable, and innovative solution with the potential to alleviate multiple pressing problems, it needs to be developed with investment from both private and public sectors.
The Korea-World Bank Partnership Facility (KWPF) has approved a grant, “Korean Technology and Knowledge Transfer to Transform the Seaweed Agribusiness in Africa and Southeast Asia.” The grant contributes to the development of the AquaInvest Platform, which is supported by PROBLUE and is a joint undertaking amongst World Bank Group teams, clients, and partners. The primary outcome of this grant activity is to improve knowledge of seaweed and catalyze seaweed investments in selected Asian and African countries.
About the Mission
From February 25th to March 8th, 2024, the AquaInvest Platform team had a mission, supported by the KWPF, in the Republic of Korea – Incheon Metropolitan City, Busan Metropolitan City, Jeollanam-Do Province (Wando County, Naju City), Sejong City, and Seoul Metropolitan City. The participants of this mission included: Christopher Ian Brett (Lead Agribusiness Specialist/TTL), Harrison Charo Karisa (Senior Fisheries Specialist/Co-TTL), Kyongvin Lee (AquaInvest Team/STC), Juyoung Yang (AquaInvest Team/STT) and Sooyoung Lee (Aquaculture Stewardship Council South Korea). Vivek Prasad (Consultant SAGGL) supported the mission virtually.
The main objectives of this mission were: (i) to advance the existing partnership with the Korean knowledge partner institutions from the last mission in September 2023; and (ii) to further expand the scope of partner landscape for close collaboration with new Korean institutions related to seaweed and seaweed farms. This encompassed intensive two-week-long interactions on the ground with more than 26 Korean institutions and 63 experts who represent government agencies, public institutions, national and regional research centers, universities (academia), private sector, SOEs (state-owned enterprises), etc.
This mission enabled the AquaInvest Platform team to deliver a clear proposal for cooperation to the Korean partners, with a particular emphasis on three of the main components under the KWPF grant: (1) Korea-WB Open Flagship Course on seaweed farming technology and business for a global audience, (2) Knowledge exchange between African and Southeast-Asian country project partners to visit Korean seaweed research, production, and processing sites, and (3) A global summit on research and development of seaweed by Korean, African, and Southeast Asian countries innovators and agribusiness companies.
As a result of the mission, the AquaInvest Platform team was able to: (i) expand its network of key stakeholders in the Korean landscape in the field of seaweed; (ii) reaffirm the willingness of the Korean partners in joining the global knowledge sharing activities for the clients; (iii) identify the strategic partners among others to prioritize in strengthening cooperation with (based on the following summaries of each meeting); (iv) recognize a strong interest from Korean seaweed experts in the potential technical assistance (TA) opportunities in the client countries; and (iv) develop clear work plans on materializing the partnerships to implement the KWPF grant.
