Project Overview
Kachemak Kelp Innovation Hub (Hub) and its test-marketing arm,Kachemak Kelp LLC, have successfully completed four years of proof-of-concept work in kelp processing, product development, and marketing, and are working toward implementing a sustainable biorefinery model to support mariculture on the Kenai Peninsula. This project has three integrated and interdependent components, all necessary to bolster innovations in product development at the Hub and to support longer term seaweed farming and processing in the region. First, the project team will scale up, add products, and refine branding for Kachemak Kelp’s popular food and bath products lines with a goal of expanding markets and profitability and establish these lines as brand leaders and strong pillars of an integrated business model. Activities include scaling production of current products including Killer Kelp Crisp and Selkie Soak kelp bath and developing and test-marketing 1-2 new products. The project team will also seek expert advice to refine and polish branding. Second, the project team will conduct in-state markets and distribution research for the Hub’s more emergent products, including Sea to Sprout liquid plant biostimulant, and three new products currently under evaluation: kelp-based animal feed, a dried kelp-based soil amendment, and ‘kelp-crete’ incorporating pressed kelp solids from biostimulant production. We will determine if and how these new kelp products could be profitably integrated into a diversified product business model. Third, the team will combine the first two project components with the Hub’s four years of data to develop an integrated operational, financial, and organizational model joining Kachemak Kelp LLC and the Hub under one sustainable business structure, to help guide the necessary transition from grant-funded testing and experimentation to a self-sustaining business. This work will include market opportunity analysis, unit economics, revenue projections, break-even analysis, distribution costs, and scale opportunities, sensitivity analysis of all proposed product streams. Importantly, the integrated model will be designed to be applicable to other seaweed processing operations in Alaska. Deliverables will include: Scaled up production of current food and bath products and development and test marketing of 1-2 new products; in-state markets, distribution and financial analyses for existing and prototyped agricultural, animal feed and kelp-crete products; and, a comprehensive high-level business plan with a path to sustainability.