Finland is the country that has received the most containers of sargassum from the Dominican Republic, to make cosmetic products such as skin creams.
Through the company SOS Carbon, the Nordic country has received six containers of sargassum from the Dominican Republic, and recently signed an agreement to send six more in the next five months.
“Finland pays for the shipment and for developing the operation locally… They need it clean, fresh, not just anyone can take it out, we are the only ones that have this type of activity in the Dominican Republic and many places we operate, we seek to promote the industries, their research and development so that when they are in a more important phase we can encourage them to enter the local ecosystem,” said Andrés Bisonó León, CEO of the company.
He said that “the sargassum has been sent to at least ten countries, but Australia and the state of California, United States, stand out, where they convert it into bioplastics based on 50% of the sargassum sent from the DR. Other countries working with the company are Antigua and Barbuda, Mexico, and soon Puerto Rico”.
While in the country they have worked in Punta Cana, Santo Domingo and Barahona, said the executive who was in charge of the master conference “Transforming environmental crises, sargassum invasions, into value chains “, presented at the Research Week of the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM).
“It doesn’t make much sense to be sending this seaweed that weighs a lot across the world to then process it, why not better bring those industries here to create more jobs locally not only the mitigation part, but in the industry part as well,” he added.
The company also developed a biostimulant that is in the testing phase, and serves as an organic fertilizer, to provide sustainable agriculture called SOS (Sustainable, Ocean, Solutions), also made from sargassum, according to Listín Diario.
The fishermen have been an important point in the project, to whom they have provided training, empowerment and formal jobs. So far they have trained more than 80 fishermen, and seek to generate more than 10,000 jobs in the Caribbean.
Source: Arecoa
