Deciding that there is little hope of government intervening to tame the rising prices of seaweed, processors yesterday appealed to farmers and traders to help keep foreign buyers interested by tempering any increase. American and European buyers of carrageenan, a seaweed derivative widely used as food ingredient, have warned of shifting to substitutes such as gelatin, agar, modified starch or xanthan gum unless prices of seaweeds and carrageenan are brought down, Seaweed Industry Association of the Philippines (SIAP) president Benson U. Dakay said. This could spell the death of the Philippine seaweed industry, with hundreds of thousands of farmers and their families losing their source of livelihood. he warned yesterday.

Villamor, M. S. (2010, March 17). Processors warn of impact of rising seaweed prices. BusinessWorld, p. S1/2.