Zanzibar is seeing a seaweed boom. Can the women collecting it cash in?

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania (AP) — The women wade with baskets near the beaches, their colorful dresses a magnet for tourist cameras. Sunscreen worn by the holidaymakers may even contain the product the women are collecting: Zanzibar's seaweed.

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania (AP) — The women wade with baskets near the beaches, their colorful dresses a magnet for tourist cameras. Sunscreen worn by the holidaymakers may even contain the product the women are collecting: Zanzibar’s seaweed.

An eco-friendly local industry that employs thousands of women, the seaweed farming looks like a picture postcard — even if the reality of the work is grimmer than what meets the eye.

“I experience pain in my back, waist and chest due to the labor in the sea. There are also risks of being stung or bitten,” said one farmer, Mwanaisha Makame Simai. “Sometimes strong waves sweep you away. I have personally witnessed three cases of people drowning.”

Growing global demand

Seaweed has been farmed off Zanzibar, part of Tanzania’s Indian Ocean coast, for decades but there is a new boom underway as global demand increases.

Seaweed is primarily exported to the global food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries, which extract their thickening and stabilizing agents.

In Zanzibar, private investment and donor dollars have been increasing. Seaweed is the third largest contributor to the local economy after tourism and spices.

“Ten years ago, people thought you were crazy for working in seaweed,” said Klara Schade, director at Mwani Zanzibar, which describes itself as a boutique seaweed farm and factory in the village of Paje. “Now it’s become a buzzword.”