The blue waters of Cox’s Bazar now hold economic potential for Bangladesh with the presence of seaweed swaying underwater.
The government’s ‘Blue Economy 2026’ project has sparked a significant transformation in commercial seaweed farming along a 50-kilometer stretch from Inani to Teknaf.
It serves not only as a raw material for food and cosmetics but also as Bangladesh’s strongest natural resource in the fight against climate change.
In 2025, seaweed farming on the coasts of St. Martin and Teknaf absorbed 3% of Bangladesh’s annual carbon emissions. Oceanographer Dr. Sayedur Rahman said, “We call it ‘liquid forest’. This seaweed lowers ocean acidity while boosting fish reproduction.
As of 2026, about 50,000 people are directly engaged in seaweed farming along the Cox’s Bazar coast. The ‘agar-agar’ and ‘carrageenan’ produced from here are now being exported to Europe and Japan.
Three large factories have been established in Chattagram of the country to produce ‘seaweed-polymer’ as a plastic packaging alternative. It is on track to become Bangladesh’s second largest environmentally friendly export product after jute.
Challenges and Future: However, there are some risks behind this revolution. If the sea temperature increases, the growth of algae may be disrupted.
So in 2026, the Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI) developed a new variety of heat-tolerant algae. This report proves that the ocean is not just a resource, but the ocean can be our lungs of the future.
