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Seaweed: A Chilling Tale

Cold storage brings more jobs for women, better prices for seaweed

SEAWEED SORTERS. A cold storage facility in Guan Wu allows seaweed to be processed year-round, creating hundreds of jobs for women.

By Carolyn Dedolph (cdedolph@adb.org)
External Relations Officer

For as far as the eye can see, beds of a lanky green seaweed called kelp dot the sea in tidy rows outside the village of An Kai on the Huangqi Peninsula in southeastern People’s Republic of China (PRC). For ages, farmers here have pulled kelp from the water in April and May and set it out in the sun to dry. Then they would hope it wouldn’t rain. With mildew and rot typically claiming 20–30 percent of every harvest, producers must sell the kelp as quickly as possible, typically at very low prices.

The village seems untouched by time, with many traditional low stone houses and few modern conveniences or appliances. Fisher Li Shao Xiong says he wishes for better times for the people of An Kai: “If we had a kelp processing plant here, we’d get better prices and more women would have jobs.”

A Village with a Difference

Down the road about 50 kilometers is the village of Guan Wu, which has exactly what Mr. Li dreams of. Up until a few years ago, nearly half of Guan Wu’s 3,375 people lived below the poverty line, similar to An Kai’s circumstances. But a cold storage facility for kelp has dramatically changed life in Guan Wu.

When Lin Zhe Long returned to his home village in 1984 after serving in the army, he saw Guan Wu’s situation all too clearly. “We were using very old techniques for kelp culture. We needed new technologies—otherwise our incomes would never increase,” says Mr. Lin, who is now General Manager of Guan Wu Seafoods Development Co. (Ltd).

It took some time, but in 1995 the Guan Wu village committee built a simple salted kelp processing plant and established the community-owned Guan Wu Seafoods. In 1997, the company received a 7.3 million yuan (Y) loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) through the Fujian Soil Conservation and Rural Development Project. (The current exchange rate is Y8.3/dollar.) Within a year, the community had used the loan to build a cold storage facility that allows year-round kelp processing—meaning more employment opportunities and better market prices.

Now worth Y19 million, the company produced 6,000 tons of salted kelp products in 2000. About Y10 million worth of products was sold domestically and Y3 million was exported, mainly to Japan, Republic of Korea, and United States. The net profit was Y1.5 million.

The company has established a nursery to produce kelp seedlings for the sea farmers, who now have a strong, reliable market for their produce. Hatcheries have been built for high-value seafood such as abalone, sea urchin, grouper, flounder, and other rare fish, which command premium prices in the market. Flounder, for example, sells for Y370 (US$45) per kilogram.

More than 900 households in Guan Wu and adjacent villages are benefiting from the facility. Nearly all the households sell kelp, now at prices 25–30 percent more than before. In the peak season, the facility provides 700–800 jobs, mainly for women. Even in the off season, the factory provides 150–200 employment opportunities. The average per capita income of Guan Wu was Y5,200 in 2000, up from only Y1,450 a few years ago.

“Life is much better now than before,” says Mr. Lin proudly.

Increased Consumerism

Evidence of increasing prosperity is everywhere in Guan Wu: new houses, color televisions, telephones, household appliances, motorcycles—and even cellular phones. Only a few years ago, the residents had none of these things. Lin Zhe Li and Lin En are typical of many in Guan Wu. Both work at the plant: he in processing and she in sorting. Proudly showing their new three-story home, they note its stark contrast with their former one-floor stone house. Their three children all go to school, with daughter Shu Mei saying she wants to be an astronomer when she grows up. The Lins have opened a small grocery store; established an orchard business; and bought furniture, a sewing machine, and a chest freezer. “When I earn more money, I’ll buy more things,” Mrs. Lin says.

Another woman, Lin Li Qing, shares her story. With the Y20/day she earns sorting kelp, she has helped her family buy a television, telephone, and motorcycle—and her own cellular phone. The 22-year-old says she wants to continue working at the plant, and is in no hurry to get married. In the past few years, the village committee used more than Y1.5 million from the company’s profits to improve public welfare by constructing roads, building sewage treatment facilities, and planting trees. The community has also established a foundation that sponsors scholarships for young people to pursue advanced studies: Y3,000 for men and Y5,000 for women—an incentive to encourage more women to pursue higher education. About 30 students are enrolled. Some are even studying aquaculture.

“There is a Chinese saying, ‘Leave no one behind.’ We want everyone in our village to prosper,” says General Manager Lin. His vision seems to be coming true.

Know more about ADB's work in PRC

• "Fruit: A New Lifeline"
  
• "Ma Bamboo"

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