Expanded Product Lines Push Kelp to Center of the Plate

GreenWave works to open up new sales channels for small- and medium-scale regenerative ocean farmers through our market innovation program. Over the years, we’ve partnered with value-added processors, wholesalers, and retailers to identify and overcome market barriers to ensure demand grows as farmers scale production.

"One of the powers of seaweed is that it has so many uses,” says GreenWave Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director Bren Smith. “Farmers can make a good living by following a whole leaf strategy, selling their crops into multiple markets, including fertilizer, animal feed, bioplastics, and food. Kelp food entrepreneurs are a critical piece of a thriving blue economy.”

U.S. grown seaweed initially entered the market as a boutique food product, sold at high end restaurants in specialty dishes. Beginning in 2019, kelp began to break out of that niche market, with higher volume buyers like fast-casual restaurants and corporate cafeterias featuring the crop on their menus. In parallel, U.S. grown kelp has broken into the ingredient market with companies like AKUA, Blue Evolution, Atlantic Sea Farms, and Barnacle Foods sourcing sea greens for value-added products.

After visiting GreenWave’s regenerative ocean farm in her home state of Connecticut in 2016, Courtney Boyd Meyers was inspired to contribute to the creation of a robust blue-green economy. Courtney, whose background is in tech, branding, and marketing, worked with Bren to identify an opportunity in the consumer market to ramp up the demand for farmers’ kelp crops and scale the benefits of regenerative ocean farming.

“AKUA is really dialed in on how to make a range of delicious, plant-based food products,” says Bren.

Courtney Boyd Myers started AKUA, an award-winning kelp-based food company that sources sea greens directly from ocean farms in New England, in 2019. “We’re on a mission to make kelp mainstream,” she says. “We create nutritious, delicious kelp-based products that support ocean farmers and fight climate change.”

Courtney collaborated with chefs and food scientists to develop AKUA’s first product, a kelp-based jerky, which the company used as an entrypoint to establish their brand, develop a supply chain, and grow their team. Building on that framework, they expanded their product line in 2021 and brought the world’s first Kelp Burger to market. “While we certainly have a few thousand Kelp Jerky fans out there, we have a few hundred thousand Kelp Burger fans and growing,” says Courtney. “We finally found our product-market fit.”

The Kelp Burger put AKUA on the national stage. “It’s enabled our company to raise money and scale our operations to feed kelp to more people,” she says. New investments and the growing demand for their products have positively impacted the farmers AKUA supports. The volume of AKUA’s purchasing has nearly tripled since 2019, increasing from 15,000 pounds to 40,000 pounds of kelp sourced directly from ocean farmers in New England. 

In addition to scaling farmer support, AKUA increased their capacity for creative recipe research and development. During the pandemic, Co-Founder Matt Lebo developed the Kelp Burger recipe in his home kitchen. “We spent weeks going back and forth on feedback with samples until we got to a final product we loved,” says Courtney. 

Since then, they’ve hired a professional food scientist, allowing the company to test and bring new recipes to market faster. Now, the AKUA product line features a whole range of kelp-based products including jerky, pasta, burgers, and ground burger “meat”, as well as a new Krab Cake, currently in beta-testing.

Courtney hopes that AKUA’s products will move consumers’ tastes towards foods that benefit both humans and the planet. “We have a lot of work to do to educate and familiarize the country with the benefits of sea greens,” says Courtney. “If we can move people’s stomachs, we can move their minds to be conscious of the impact of their decisions around food and in other parts of their life.”

"Our partnership with GreenWave is the foundation on which AKUA was built,” says Courtney. “We are so thrilled to work hand in hand with such an incredible organization that's helping to reshape our food systems and combat climate change. We love learning about kelp and its positive impacts from the team, and we're proud to support GreenWave with 1% of every sale of our products." 

Courtney was also an early supporter of GreenWave, organizing a 2017 charity bike ride from the organization’s headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut to Woods Hole, Massachusetts, raising $20,000 for GreenWave’s training programs. 

GreenWave is excited to continue working with market innovators like AKUA dedicated to growing a new blue-green economy.