What a kelp farmer is paid, and why it stays low

This week I looked at one question from four sides: what a kelp farmer in North America is paid, and why that price stays low. Each day's post took one piece of it. This note brings the pieces together, adds what the latest industry survey says about profit, and sets out what I take from it.

The price at the dock

In 2025, Maine kelp farmers received an average of 53 cents a pound for wet kelp. In 2023 the figure was 80 cents, and in 2024 it was 64 cents. These averages are calculated from the value and volume the state reports each year. The 2025 figure is preliminary, and volume fell by about half from 2024, so it should be read with care.

In Alaska, farmers reported in 2025 that they were paid about 85 cents to 1 dollar a pound, and that this is roughly what it takes to cover their farming costs.

In British Columbia, no price paid to kelp farmers has been published. The most recent provincial harvest figure is from 2022, when active farmers reported about 108,000 pounds of sugar kelp and ribbon kelp combined. The 165,000 pounds now quoted in some coverage as BC's production is one company's reported harvest in 2023.

The buyers exist, but the supply is scattered

GreenWave's 2026 report on the kelp industry in the United States and Canada states that most kelp farms operate on their own, with no coordinated way to pool their supply. At the same time, 39 buyers using GreenWave's matching app reported that they could buy close to 5.5 million pounds of wet kelp.

The report also explains why buyers hesitate. Yields vary from year to year with seed quality, site conditions and weather, and many farmers have no record yet of what their own site produces. As such, it is hard for a farm to promise a volume in advance, and hard for a buyer to agree on a price and volume before the season starts (what the industry calls a forward contract).

Adding a step does not always pay

A common answer to a low price is to move one step up: dry the kelp, process it, or sell it under your own name. In 2021 a small farm on Vinalhaven, Maine, tested this with a federal farm research grant. It dried its harvest in a neighbour's greenhouse and expected its income to rise from 50 cents to 1.50 dollars per pound of wet kelp.

The harvest came in below the expected yield, and drying was limited to about 900 pounds a day. At the end of the project the farm concluded that, for now, it was better to keep selling wet kelp to a buyer who does the drying. The 1.50 dollars was the farm's expectation; the report does not say it was ever paid. In particular, a higher price at the next stage comes with its own costs: equipment, energy, labour, space and time.

Where kelp is actually selling

According to the same GreenWave report, as of 2025 three markets account for a growing share of kelp sold under contract: (a) agriculture, such as soil products and animal feed; (b) biomaterials; and (c) functional ingredients for food and personal care. The report also states that several early companies built around specialty kelp foods have since closed or cut back, and that others are holding unsold stock.

For scale, the world produced about 37.8 million tonnes of seaweed (wet weight) in 2022, according to FAO, most of it farmed in Asia. North America's kelp farms are a very small part of that.

What the industry survey says about profit

GreenWave surveyed 53 kelp farms in the United States and Canada in 2025. Of these, 27 percent reported that they were profitable. The report also estimates that less than 35 percent of the area approved for kelp farming is in commercial use. The reason it gives is market readiness: demand is limited and inconsistent. Many farmers keep their permits and gear but put their effort into mussels or oysters until reliable demand and prices appear.

What I take from this

First, the price paid for wet kelp in North America is low and has not been rising. Where it has been published, it sits at or below what farmers say it costs to grow.

Second, the limit is buyers and coordination. Kelp grows fast, and approved farm area sits unused. What is missing is a steady buyer at a known price, and a way for many small farms to supply one buyer together.

Third, moving up the chain is a decision to cost out first. Drying or processing can raise the price per pound, and it can also raise costs faster than income.

Taken together, the question for the sector is the same one I keep coming back to: who buys the kelp, at what price, and year after year?

Discussion question

If you grow, buy or process kelp, what price are you seeing? For British Columbia in particular, no figure has been published. Every published figure we have found, with its source and year, is in the Price and Buyer Reference on Seaweed Economy.