The Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group Co. Ltd., based in Shandong, China, which produces crop nutrients made from seaweed had set up a store in Los Angeles’ City of Industry as a division to expand seaweed fertilizer sales across the North American market. “The North American market will be our key market for the next decade, while our ultimate goal is to become one of the most technologically advanced global companies in this industry,” said Jun Wei Shan, its chief executive, in a statement.
The Chinese privately owned company employs between 300 and 500 workers and manufactures seaweed extract crop nutrient mostly for the domestic market. Founded in 2000, the company that now produces around 100 seaweed-derived fertilizer products claims to be China’s largest producer of seaweed fertilizer with two ships that harvest the weed from three production platforms. Qingdao’s main business scope is research, production, development, marketing and technology industrialization in the field of ocean organism. Its seaweed fertilizer series products were developed from early 1990s by the experts from Ocean University of China, the most professional university in marine science in the country.
Relying on its strong R&D capabilities, Qingdao has kept on developing new products to meet various demands from different markets around the world. Aside from the traditional seaweed species used for fertilizer – Laminaria Japonica, Ascophyllum Nodosum and Sargassum – the company is also carrying out tests on new seaweed species with leading cutting edge technology to optimize its products and develop innovative fertilizing solutions for international markets.
