Workshop "North Atlantic sea cucumber value chains: current status and industrial opportunities"

Oct 09, 2020

The 1^st workshop, organized in the framework of HOLOSUSTAIN, was hosted by partner MATIS, Iceland. The workshop took place on 8 October 2020 as a virtual event through Zoom. More than 50 participants from 9 different countries showed interest in the event.

The workshop was organized in two thematic sessions - a morning session on "Fisheries status and Aquaculture", an afternoon session on "High-added value product opportunities", with company pitches and presentations from researchers and authorities. A common dialogue among all participants (companies, authorities and researchers) took place after the afternoon session, focusing on the establishment of the main challenges and opportunities for an operational temperate water sea cucumber-based bioeconomy sector in the Nordic countries/EC.

In conclusion, the wide opportunities for novel products and applications derived from temperate water sea cucumbers were clear to all participants. However, the need for thorough genomic and biodiversity studies of the resource, population charecterization throughout the Atlantic & Mediterranean, as well as the current lack of legislative framework for the sustainability control by the corresponding national & EU authorities have been underlined as key bottlenecks for value chain development. The necessity for higher funding and legislative support for R&D on temperate sea cucumbers and inclusion in strategic research agendas was emphasized.

At this link the final program of the event is available.

A link towards the video recording from the first session of the workshop is available here: