Namibia - A day with Kelp Blue
[A delay in posting this as we are currently off-grid with very little connectivity]
Whilst at one of the Naankuse sites (Kanaan) volunteers are offered a 2-day excursion to a port town called Lüderitz. As luck would have it, Fran (my friend and colleague at MFS) has a brother (Ed) who works in Luderitz for a relatively new scale-up called Kelp Blue. Other than the fact that they are trying to grow a lot of kelp off the coast of Namibia and scrolling through their website, I knew little about them.
I had been in touch with Ed about seeing him if possible, and it looked like it wouldn’t work out until we happened to be going to Luderitz. He wasn't in town but helped set up a meeting for our family and little volunteer group with his team on the ground, which was meant to be a 1 hour meet and intro to Kelp Blue.
Meeting at Kelp Blue offices in Luderitz. Our main time was with Fabian (left, Namibia MD) and Potasius (right, Head of Marine Monitoring)
What I thought might be a quick coffee meeting ended up being one of our best days so far – we spent from 7:45am to 4:30pm with the Kelp Blue team (curiosity clearly got the better of us and they were very gracious and generous with their time), and we saw their entire operation from root to branch (pun intended). Who knew Kelp could be so interesting (and critically important)? A few of the notes and pictures below from our trip to share what kept us engaged.
As you can see from the pictures, we saw the entire chain of production, starting from (starting top left and moving to the right): the labs where they grow the kelp (two different strains) from cells to shoots; to the binding area; the area in the sea/ocean where they are doing their onshore planting; the processing plant where they manufacture their product; R&D lab where they are experimenting with different variations of their main product – a fertiliser called StimBlue – and byproducts (kelp bath salts anyone?!); the Quality Control lab and "Garden of Eden" where they test each batch of StimBlue against different crops (currently mung bean as a control, and further down the track of testing efficacy and formulation for almond plants and strawberry plants having already got grain and grape to market).
We also met their academic research team who are doing some very exciting work on biodiversity, data benchmarking, ocean acidification and carbon sequestration of sea grasses. These are all really important frontiers in the sustainability world of which we need to develop a deeper understanding.
We also went to the government museum where we learned from the museum curator about their partnership with Kelp Blue. We also discussed and saw the Blue School they have built (which seems incredible). Finally, we saw their new operations hub that they are building and their ships.
My observations as follows:
They have a very impressive team. Everyone we spoke to along the chain could speak in great depth and had a command of their area. They are clearly very proud of the quality of their work, and we saw very high standards of operation in every space.
They do not overplay the sustainability aspects of their work. They are not banking on carbon credits or biodiversity incentives to make their business model work – their product must make them profitable, and the sustainability aspects can be positive upside.
Our main contact for the day was Potasias, who heads the Marine team. It was clear to me from our various interactions throughout the day that this specific team has a lot of influence over the decisions that are made with respect to production, operations and harvesting. I have to say they are some of the most impressive people I have met, humble, hardworking, intelligent and devoted to their craft.
The tie-in to the local economy and social aspects are very real and not just talk. It was great to see the relationships with local people, traders and even the government. By chance we met some of the students that Kelp Blue have helped with scholarships and training. This will be really important for them to attract and retain good young talent, because Luderitz is a bit of a ghost town and needs some continued revitalisation – and it was great to see a living example of how a good business can be a catalyst for renewal.
They are learning a lot, we talked about Kelp lice came as a bit of a surprise and are eating their crops, and the decision making and impact that has through the business. This helped me understand how they balance short vs long-term (long-term won) as well as the balance between financial and environmental impact.
They are clearly ambitious and are moving quickly, but I think they are managing to do it with a thoughtfulness and quality that stood out to me.
I hope to keep in close touch with the Kelp Blue team and am excited to see how we can support them as they look to raise money for their solar sea harvester and continue to scale their operations.
Huge thanks to Fran, Ed, Fabian, Potasius and all of the lovely people we met at Kelp Blue – this day was the highlight of our week.
