Kenyan coast is a coastal farming community at Shimoni, on the southern Kenya coast, Kwale County. The Indian Ocean here grows Eucheuma cottonii — a red algae with the highest carrageenan content of the Eucheuma species.
The same ocean. The same women. Every batch.
The Kenyan coast Seaweed Self-Help Group has been farming this coastline since 2010, founded and run by Fatuma Mohammed. The farming model is rope-based cultivation — sea moss attached to ropes suspended in the ocean, harvested in rotation. Not wild-dragged from the seabed. Cultivated with the same plot, the same community, the same accountability to the water they depend on.
Irish sea moss is Chondrus crispus — a cold-water North Atlantic species. What grows at Kenyan coast is Indian Ocean tropical red algae. Different species, different climate, different chemistry. We will never call it Irish sea moss. It is not.
Location
Kenyan coast Beach, Shimoni
Kwale County, Kenya Coast. Indian Ocean.
Community
Kenyan coast Seaweed SHG
Founded 2010. Led by Fatuma Mohammed. Women-led farming cooperative.
Species
Eucheuma cottonii
Indian Ocean tropical red algae. Highest carrageenan content of the Eucheuma genus. Not Chondrus crispus.
Method
Rope cultivation
Attached to suspended ropes in the ocean. Harvested in rotation. Not wild-dragged.
Pilot
20–50kg food-grade
First commercial order. Eurofins India test run on this batch before any product ships.