Collecting wild stocks of seaweed is a part-time sporadic economic activity primarily undertaken by women and children from fishing communities. As women have traditionally harvested the intertidal zone for shells and octopus, collection of seaweed has also been a predominantly female activity. Unless prices paid for dried wild stock seaweed increase significantly, it is unlikely that fishermen will participate in this economic activity.
There appear to be two main factors which determine the regularity of collection: the abundance of wild stock and the frequency of visits from a buyer. The prices currently offered for this seaweed and the time taken to collect the seaweed do not compare favourably with other intertidal economic activities such as octopus fishing, where one medium sized octopus can fetch 50 Tanzanian shillings compared to 13 Tanzanian shillings/kilo of dried seaweed, equivalent to 8–10 kilos of wet seaweed. Nevertheless, as seaweed collection continues to be undertaken, it is obviously a worthwhile supplement to the incomes of women and youth in coastal communities.
For exporters of seaweed, reliance on the collection of wild stock appears to be uneconomic because the relatively small quantities collected do not justify the costs of collection in terms of transport to and from the collection points, small consignments which increase per unit shipping costs and compared to cultivated seaweed, a mixed and varied product.
