Seaweed creation is dominated by larger players, mainly from Asia. Our strategy is not to compete with them, but follow the FAO advice3 and target for a niche market: we will differentiate our product specialising in the development of high quality seaweed products based on protein enrichment with natural iodine and rich in essential amino acids.
Some specific target groups have particular iodine needs, such as children (7-14 years), pregnant and breast feeding women and elderly people. Nowadays there is no product in the market specialized for children nor elderly and there isn’t any clear leader in products for natural iodine support for pregnant and breast feeding women. Another group with a higher iodine deficiency is the Vegan and vegetarian, but we decided not to target them in our initial market introduction (nevertheless our labelling will include that is a product appropriate for them) due to the already existing significant number of products focusing in this group.
Our seaweeds are autochthonous from our region and have naturally a high iodine and protein content and a high degree of stability. They are ideally to be processed for the production of iodine extracts. Through our innovative biorefinary process already developed and tested for small production we will be able to put in the market a high quality products at a competitive price (10% to 30% lower than our competitors), with much higher quality (iodine composition 30% higher and vitamin C 300% higher than usually commercialized seaweed products). We have the intention to apply for a patent with our biorefinary procedure during phase 2 project.
Our product is a natural extract and we provide in our supplement a diverse range of nutrients, vitamins and minerals (iron, calcium, magnesium,…) that will be beneficial to the human metabolism and not only iodine. For example, our natural supplement is very rich in protein. This is a clear advantage because our seaweed proteins possesses all the essential amino acids and will stabilize iodine during assimilation. Iron is also presented in a significant quantity. This is very important for the improvement of the thyroid function according to Eftekhari et al. (2006) due to the synergism that exist between iron and iodine in the improvement in thyroid function.
Copper, also an essential mineral that is known to help the human body to use the iron and participate in the vitamin C metabolism, is presented in our supplement. Dietary fiber is presented is also present and is extremely important in the maintenance of a good bowel movement.
