BALI - Taking the opportunity presented by his participation in the nearby G20 Ministerial Meeting, UNIDO Director General Gerd Müller visited PT Sea Six Energy Indonesia in Nusa Dua, Bali. Sea Six Energy is a company that envisions a future powered by the potential of the oceans and operates as a hub for innovative technologies for sustainable, large-scale, and mechanized ocean farming, particularly of seaweed.

Seaweed offers a road to a more sustainable future as it is the basis for products for animal feed, food ingredients, bio-polymers, bio-fuels and various other products to meet future demand. 

UNIDO, through its SMART-Fish (Sustainable Market Access through Responsible Trading of Fish) project, funded by the Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), has been supporting Indonesia in improving the productivity and competitiveness of the seaweed value chain working with thousands of seaweed farmers cooperatives and the Seaweed Industry Association of Indonesia (ASTRULI). It has also helped establish the Tropical Seaweed Innovation Network for networking among researchers and business communities to bring innovation into the seaweed industry, and the SeaweedTrace platform which supports both transparency and reliability in supply chains. Meanwhile, the power of branding for market access and competitiveness is being put into play with the Indonesia Seaweed brand. The programme is also actively involved in human resource development bysupporting vocational training at the Jakarta Fisheries Polytechnic.

The current second phase of SMART-Fish, part of UNIDO’s Global Quality and Standards Programme, continues its support for productivity improvement. It helps small and medium enterprises to comply with market standards and buyers’ requirements, and supports the production of high-quality seeds through tissue culture, spore development, and clone selection methods.

For more on the project and seaweed in Indonesia, see: The tide is coming in for Indonesia's seaweed