A few years ago, cooking with seaweed was taboo. Today, it can be found in supermarkets, canned, dehydrated, in salads, for seasoning... It is also increasingly common to use it in popular gastronomic dishes such as pies, omelettes, soups... Due to its characteristics and nutritional properties, seaweed is set to become one of the natural superfoods of the future. Researching, promoting and contributing to the creation of this western culture of seaweed, you can find a Galician family business located in Cerceda (A Coruña): Porto-Muíños, founded in 1998 by Antonio Muíños and Rosa Mirás.

They began timidly looking for an alternative Galician product to give an alternative to a canning factory where they had ceased operations and that is how they put their focus on seaweed, which would be the seed of a life dedicated to spreading knowledge about so-called "sea vegetables". They took advantage of the natural wealth of the Galician coast and relied on the university to identify the most gastronomically suitable species. "We made an initial request to the administration for an experimental harvest, with the aim of carrying out the first cooking tests. We started by collecting 100 kilos, which we ended up giving away", recalls Antonio Muíños, its promoter.

It is no easy task to carry out such a novel business venture and Muíños acknowledges that the first few years were difficult. Along the way, they relied on haute cuisine, which at that time was emerging in Spain, and in which innovative and distinctive products were sought after. "The success of our company was the result of a fantastic partnership between chefs, professionals, the media, journalists... Everyone contributed something to the promotion of seaweed in their own area," he explains.

It took more than 10 years from the launch of the company before large supermarkets began to take an interest in stocking seaweed on their shelves for the end consumer.

Innovation in its DNA

Today, Porto-Muíños has around 25 employees and more than a hundred products on the market, with a presence in around twenty countries around the world. They market a wet volume of around 400 tonnes.

The culture of innovation is part of the company's DNA, which is constantly searching for new uses and applications, currently focused mainly on agriculture and animal feed. Among them, the Algaterra innovation project stands out, aimed at developing new agricultural inputs with seaweed discards produced in the food industry, and testing their effectiveness for use in both organic and conventional agriculture.

"Galicia will continue to grow in the seaweed sector due to the enormous richness of our coastline and the characteristics we have in terms of climate and water temperature, which have nothing to envy from leading areas such as Korea, Maine or Portland," says Antonio Muíños.

Of course, "as the consumption of seaweed increases exponentially, it becomes more important to promote the cultivation of as many species as possible and with the least possible impact on the natural environment", he emphasises.