SPAGHETTI bolognese is one of Australia’s favourite evening meals... but would you tuck into a bowl of seaweed pasta?
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That’s what dutch entrepreneur Willem Sodderland would like you to do.
He’s the founder of Seamore Seaweed – a company which harvests and sells seaweed as food.
His groundbreaking product, I Sea Pasta, looks like tagliatelle (long, flat ribbons of pasta) but is in fact 100 per cent wild, handpicked seaweed from Connemara, Ireland.
The seaweed has a plain but savoury taste.
Since launching his product in the Netherlands 18 months ago, Mr Sodderland has achieved a foot hold in the world’s biggest cities.
Today, families in Berlin, London, Tokyo and now Sydney are tucking into the slimy stuff. Depending on the market, it’s sold in supermarket chains and health food stores, as well as online.
“It’s funny to think I’m a Dutch man selling Irish seaweed to customers in Japan, and indeed, around the world,” Mr Sodderland said.
He said the Australian market presented huge opportunities for his business.
“It’s early days but what I see in Australia is there is a huge fascination with food, particularly healthy and organic food,” he said.
“Sydney-siders are already buying it in healthfood shops in the Bondi area.”
There was no need to introduce Asian consumers to the concept of seaweed for dinner, but he has still had his challenges.
“The type of seaweed we use is a European species, it doesn’t exist in Asia so the concept it’s still new. They’re familiar with the concept of noodles so they could put it in their soup.”
He said recent quality issues with seaweed sourced from China and Korea had piqued interest in his product from Asian customers.
Mr Sodderland has another trick up his sleeve. He’s about to launch a second product, I Sea Bacon.
“When you put it in a pan and fry it looks and tastes just like crispy bacon.”
Mr Sodderland was in Australia as a guest of Rabobank at its Farm2Fork event held recently at Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour. The event included a pitchfest for food and agribusiness startups from Australia and New Zealand called FoodBytes!.
Mr Sodderland was the winner of the 2015 FoodBytes! event in the US where won a place in a mentor program.
“It gave me huge boost,” he said.
He now has plans to attract investors to take his business to the next level.
“We sell an organic product but we don’t want to grow organically,” he said.
“We’re using investors not just to fund faster growth but for their knowledge and networks and skills as well. As a start-up we have to learn everything about seaweed harvesting to the retail world so finding investors who can bring that knowledge to the table is incredibly important.”
For some, seaweed as food is a “crazy” concept, but not for Mr Sodderland, who is a career entrepreneur.
“My previous business was marketing, specifically, word of mouth marketing. I’m now using that expertise everyday now to get seaweed to a larger group of people following the enthusiasm of early adopters. It’s great to use that experience and now apply it to my own products.”
