Furcellaria lumbricalis is a source of unique texturant – furcellaran, also known as vegan gelatine.

The drifting and attached forms of Furcellaria lumbricalis and Coccotylus truncatus form a loose-lying algal stratum in Kassari bay, Estonia, which is also the most abundant community in the Baltic Sea.

A factory in Kärla annually processes around 200 metric tons of furcellaria, which inhabit the coastal waters of Saaremaa. Saaremaa exports 80 percent of the processed furcellaran, and several of Kalev's marmalades, for instance, contain about two percent of the coastal seaweed products from Saaremaa.

Furcellaran can be used in many fields, offering alternative for other gums and texturing agents, also oil-based and non-sustainable ingredients. 

Worldwide demand for this algae is growing, so the company does not rule out the possibility that they will begin to grow more red seaweed on an industrial scale.

"We may not have enough harvest based on permitted quota, so we need to start growing," Urmas Pau, the head of Est-Agar, said.

"With the new trend towards blue-green thinking and veganism, there's no doubt that algae production is very promising," he added.

The first algae farming experiments will be carried out in the coastal waters of Saaremaa.

"We use some loose seaweed that floats naturally on the bottom, but it can also be grown in cages. It also grows nicely in the marsh, and every now and then you could harvest a little less of it and what's left will grow new biomass. It is a loose form, so there are no attachment points," Jonne Kotta, research director of the Estonian marine institute at the University of Tartu, explained.

Isn't that what storms bring to the beach?

"It's the same species, just a different form. The one that (the sea) rolls in is an attached form, with a wider leaf, and it also has bladders attached," Kotta said.

Blue-green algae cultivation is rapidly developing worldwide, and the loose red algae in Estonian coastal waters could become an algae species to be cultivated under local conditions and provide economic benefits.

"The red algae is rich in alginates, which we can use to create plastic film." So basically, we could replace petroleum-based plastics with natural plastic, which wouldn't harm the environment. These algae are also good to eat," Kotta said.

From the point of view of the marine environment, algae farming would also play an important role in the marine environment, helping to clean the Baltic Sea of excess nutrients.

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