American/Canadian Sourced Seaweed Snacks
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Hey all, I've got a quick question for the US & Canada-based farmers and processors out there. Do any of you know of companies or processors that make seaweed snacks (the toasted nori sheets) and sell them wholesale here in the US? I think I've only found one (which sells its own product). We all know how popular they are. Our brand, Seaweed for the People™ (seaweedforthepeople.com), may be interested in selling them on our site, but we are looking for seaweed that is sourced from the US or Canada. Thanks!
@anna_mckenzie FYI I moved your post to the processing + markets topic and posted it to the entire US.
@grace_collery may also be able to help you out with your question!
Hi @anna_mckenzie - to my knowledge, there is no domestic cultivated nori available commercially at this time. There is significant interest and research in cultivating this species in the US, but what is available on the market is coming from Asia primarily. Farming nori typically relies on placing nets on the surface, which can be difficult here since the environment is different from Asia. There are also people are looking into tank cultivation of nori. I do know that Maine Coast Sea Vegetables offers a Wild Atlantic Nori (wild-harvested), which is related to the Asian Pacific Nori, but this different from the nori sheets you are looking for.
@anna_mckenzie @ike_levine might have some insights. Ike ran the first U.S. nori farm back in the 90s, and also had a business importing, processing, and packaging nori sheets from Japan for the U.S. market. Ike, is that correct? Do you know of any U.S. based processors who are making the nori-sheet style seaweed snacks? See Anna's question above.
Thank you @grace_collery and @kendall_barbery! And yes @ike_levine, if you have any information to share, that would be great.
@grace_collery
All the info previously stated in this string is 100% correct. CPI/PhycoGen operated a nori farm and sheet processing company in Eastport Maine in 1990's. We closed the farm due to water use conflicts. Maine Coast Sea Vegetables sells a tremendous product that is wild harvested local Maine and perhaps Canadian Maritime Porphyra/Pyropia called either nori or laver (not sure what MCSV calls there product). If you need sheets, my seaweed marketing company still provides both dried and toasted nori sheets. Organic or non organic. The three commercial raising countries are China, Japan, and South Korea.
There are zero US-based nori sheet producing companies. The closest to that is our efforts to import "dried" sheets and stored in California and upon order are toasted, packaged and shipped from CA. The local New England species tend to be too tough to form into nori seaweed paper due to the high energy environments they inhabit. There is one Japanese species that was introduced into Maine approximately 80-100 years ago, P. yezoensis, the same species we grew in Maine. Feel free to reach out to me via email, ilevine@maine.edu
Happy to chat with anyone on nori.
@ira_levine This is very helpful. Thank you!
@anna_mckenzie @ike_levine might have some insights. Ike ran the first U.S. nori farm back in the 90s, and also had a business importing, processing, and packaging nori sheets from Japan for the U.S. market. Ike, is that correct? Do you know of any U.S. based processors who are making the nori-sheet style seaweed snacks? See Anna's question above.
Thank you @grace_collery and @kendall_barbery! And yes @ike_levine, if you have any information to share, that would be great.
@grace_collery
All the info previously stated in this string is 100% correct. CPI/PhycoGen operated a nori farm and sheet processing company in Eastport Maine in 1990's. We closed the farm due to water use conflicts. Maine Coast Sea Vegetables sells a tremendous product that is wild harvested local Maine and perhaps Canadian Maritime Porphyra/Pyropia called either nori or laver (not sure what MCSV calls there product). If you need sheets, my seaweed marketing company still provides both dried and toasted nori sheets. Organic or non organic. The three commercial raising countries are China, Japan, and South Korea.
There are zero US-based nori sheet producing companies. The closest to that is our efforts to import "dried" sheets and stored in California and upon order are toasted, packaged and shipped from CA. The local New England species tend to be too tough to form into nori seaweed paper due to the high energy environments they inhabit. There is one Japanese species that was introduced into Maine approximately 80-100 years ago, P. yezoensis, the same species we grew in Maine. Feel free to reach out to me via email, ilevine@maine.edu
Happy to chat with anyone on nori.
@ira_levine This is very helpful. Thank you!