In a High-Level Forum co-chaired by the Prime Minister of Grenada Dickon Mitchell; the Director General of the OECS, Didacus Jules, and the Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the European Commission Felix Fernandez-Shaw, representatives of countries from the Caribbean basin underscored the need for urgent collective action to turn sargassum into an economic opportunity.
This includes catalyzing research and innovation in a common space, promoting public private partnerships and enhancing predictability and forecasting on the availability of sargassum supply.
The meeting encouraged the development of national plans for collection and processing, and the harmonization of strategies and frameworks for sargassum management across the Caribbean.
Creating an adequate enabling environment requires incentives and investments on infrastructure and equipment, while developing benefits for local communities in a sustainable manner.
Decision makers committed to work on viable business models and suitable offshore collection solutions. They committed to leverage investments for critical infrastructure and scaling up operations, promoting joint ventures, transfer of technologies and de-risking operations.
Prime Minister Mitchell expressed excitement at the prospect to start collecting sargassum at sea by 2026. He added that “the Government of Grenada and the EU will convene a project team in Grenada before the end of 2024 with stakeholders present at the conference and others interested to mobilize plans, human resources, infrastructure and funds to support Grenada in collecting storing and processing fresh sargassum offshore by 2026.”
Under the theme, ‘Turning the Tide: Sustainable Practices and Economic Opportunities for Sargassum in the Caribbean Basin,’ the 2-day conference attracted more than 400 regional and international stakeholders from government, private sector, academia, financing institutions, donors and non-governmental organizations.

The aim was to address the environmental and socio-economic impact of sargassum seaweed across the Caribbean basin and drive dialogue, action and investment in valorization and the development of value chains at scale, to meet the magnitude of the challenge.
The conference was held as the Caribbean region continues to grapple annually with unprecedented amounts of Sargassum washing ashore, impacting beaches, disrupting marine ecosystems, and threatening key economic sectors, particularly tourism and fisheries.
Through panel discussions, an investment forum and business-to-business conversations, the conference led to a greater understanding of the building blocks required to develop sustainable value chains.
It explored the latest cutting-edge research, examined monitoring and forecasting, prevention and containment, collection and harvesting, treatment, valorization and use, and disposal of sargassum biomass.