page_title: Eucheuma
section_title: Commercial aspects
hierarchical_section_title: Eucheuma / Commercial aspects
caption_attribution_description: Eucheuma farming, Philippines
context_page_description: Eucheuma, commonly known as gusô, is a seaweed algae that may be brown, red, or green in color. Eucheuma species are used in the production of carrageenan, an ingredient for cosmetics, food processing, and industrial manufacturing, as well as a food source for people in the Philippines and parts of Indonesia and Malaysia. Eucheuma cottonii – cultivated in the Philippines – is the particular species known as gusô. Other species include Betaphycus gelatinae, Eucheuma denticulatum, and several species of the genus Kappaphycus, including K. alvarezii. Since the mid-1970s, Kappaphycus and Eucheuma have been a major source for the expansion of the carrageenan industry.
  Though commercially significant, species of Eucheuma are difficult to identify without the aid of close scientific examination, as different species may have similar morphologies. Some eighteen to twenty species alone fall within the genus Eucheuma, represented by the groups Cottoniformia, Gelatiformia, and Anaxiferae.
  Gusô is listed in the Ark of Taste international catalogue of endangered heritage foods of the Philippines by the Slow Food movement.
context_section_description: Commercial growth of Eucheuma is an important source of income for people living in developing nations, where the production of the low-valued seaweed can be a sustainable source of income with lower environmental costs compared to other sectors of aquaculture. As Eucheuma are some of the most common and fastest growing species of seaweeds, their commercial aspects are visible by large quantities  grown and harvested over short periods of time, possessing the ability to reach ten times their mass in some 45 to 60 days in warm tropical settings. Once harvested, the product can be dried, packaged, and then transported to areas ready for carrageenan extraction or used as a food supply.
  The major producers of Eucheuma include the Philippines (~92% total global production; 2005 statistics FAO) and China (~7% total global production). It is also farmed in Tanzania and Kiribati. This may be underrepresented as countries including Indonesia and Malaysia, which are also significant producers of these species, do not accurately report their output to the FAO. As Eucheuma is commercially important for economic growth, average annual production of total dried seaweeds, including other groups of sea plants, reached nearly 125,000 tonnes in the Philippines alone, by 2000–2004, with a value of approximately $US139 million.
  The 1889 book The Useful Native Plants of Australia records that Eucheuma speciosa, was commonly known as the "Jelly Plant' in Western Australia and that "This is a remarkable sea-weed of a very gelatinous character which enters into the culinary arrangements of the people of Western Australia for making jelly, blancmange, etc. Size and cement can also be made from it. It is cast ashore from deep water."
caption: Underwater Eucheuma farming, Philippines
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