AGAR SEAWEED

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23800, 20 November 1942, Page 4

AGAR SEAWEED

COLLECTION IN DOMINION AUCKLAND FACTORY TO BEGIN TREATMENT (P.S.S.) AUCKLAND, November 19. Arrangements had been made with a commercial firm to install a plant for the treatment of agar seaweed, said the Auckland manager of the Internal Marketing Division (Mr A. H. Honeyfield). The systematic collection of this seaweed had been taken in hand by the Marketing Department, and contacts had been made with collectors, principally Maoris, along the entire coast between Kaitaia and Gisborne. , . , The collectors had been receiving Is per lb for dry weed delivered to Auckland said Mr Honeyfield. Only nine to 10 tons had been received, because of unsuitable weather, but the advent of better conditions should bring a larger yield. „ , ~ The initial plant to be installed would treat one ton a week, and other units would be added as greater supplies of seaweed became available. The quantity already received for treatment was sufficient for British hospital requirements for 12 months, but further supplies were most urgently wanted for other Allied countries. Before the war the world’s supply of agar came almost entirely from Japan. Research work had clearly proved that the New Zealand weed produced an extremely high-grade product, testing from two to two and a half times better in all main characteristics than the Japanese material. The principal uses for agar were in bacteriological work, in the manufacture of medicinal preparations for hospitals, and in the meatcanning industry.