In the global exploitation of marine biological resources, including aquaculture products, a significant portion belongs to seaweed. This confirms the value and significance of seaweed as a useful resource for a various range of human activity.

The bulk of the harvested and cultivated seaweed is brown seaweed; its crop yield is 13.5 million tons of wet weight per year. In the marine areas of Russia, the recommended amount of seaweed production is almost 230 thousand tons. Not more than 30% of the recommended amount is developed. Seaweed is mainly concentrated in sparsely populated and inaccessible ecological areas.

In coastal countries of Europe and Asia, natural resources have long been depleted. These countries have converted to artificial cultivating, while in Russia, exclusively wild growing seaweed are being harvested. White Sea seaweed are saturated with alginic acid several times more than, for example, the algae of the Russian Far East or China. Because sea brown algae, so-called edible laminaria, are cold loving algae, they grow in the seas where the water temperature is quite low like in the White and Barents Seas. At a temperature of 18-20 °C, brown algae begin to collapse.

Favorable conditions for growth in areas remote from everyday human life allow White Sea seaweed to reach 2-3 years of age and accumulate the maximum amount of alginic acid, mannitol, which is in great demand in the global pharmaceutical industry today. However, algae are relevant not only in the pharmaceutical industry:

• The main substance from brown algae - Laminaria concentrate is used in the production of dietary supplements and cosmetics.
• Copper chlorophyll derivatives are widely used in medicine and cosmetology.
• Alginic acid and its salts are used in the pharmaceutical and other industries.
• Mannitol is a pharmaceutical substance that is included in the list of essential medicines.

There are not many enterprises that extract and process wild seaweed, and most of the enterprises are engaged in growing artificially harvested species of seaweed, which are inferior in comparison to real wild seaweed created by nature. For example, some Chinese factories harvest crop a month after planting, and in such a short period of time, the sea plant does not have time to strengthen and gather a necessary amount of useful substances.

Most often, extractive enterprises supply algae to the retail market as food with a short shelf life. Less often, they are extracted and sold for food production, which indicates the absence of processing at extractive enterprises. Therefore, pharmaceutical plants have to buy unprocessed algae and independently establish the process of treating sea plants and disposing of waste, which in fact significantly increases the cost of the process and the product itself. In Arkhangelsk, a city in northern Russia, is the only plant in the world that extracts seaweed and processes them into raw materials satisfying demand simultaneously for 4 major industries: the pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic industries, as well as for the agricultural sector. In addition to processing raw materials, the company produces alginic acid, alginates, and finished cosmetic products. The company introduces products to the international market under the brand “SNOWSEA”.

Laminaria and Fucus are extracted in an ecologically clean area of ​​the White Sea, along the islands of the Solovetsky Archipelago. The special climatic and biological conditions of the extraction site allow brown algae to absorb a unique set of active substances in a short time. At the age of 2–3 years, the wild northern algae are maximally saturated with alginic acid, mannitol, polysaccharides, macro- and microelements, amino acids, polysaturated fatty acids, and a wide range of vitamins.

“SNOWSEA” seaweed are often used not just as a useful food supplement, but also as a useful additive in cosmetic production and as a necessity for cattle and poultry health feed additives on farms. Pharmaceutical manufacturers will also buy raw materials from marine plants as an obligatory additive in medicines.

“SNOWSEA” is a unique Russian brand created by the Arkhangelsk Seaweed Factory, which supplies raw materials from Laminaria, Fucus and Anfeltia to the countries of the European Union and Southeast Asia. Every year the company harvests tons of processed raw materials for sale on an industrial scale. If you are looking for a reliable supplier of unique raw materials from seaweed, simply contact us in any way convenient for you. We will answer all your questions and send you, if requested, testing samples of our products. Give your production another advantage - include the essential nutrients of “SNOWSEA” seaweed into your products!