The use of seaweed-based biostimulants has significantly increased in Spain and the European Union over the past five years.
This growth has been clearly driven by the rising demand for more sustainable agricultural solutions. The EU has established itself as a global leader in the development and production of these inputs, with Spain standing out as one of the leading markets.
In 2022, the global biostimulant market was estimated to be around $3 billion, with approximately 40% of that value attributed to formulations based on seaweed extracts.
However, the penetration of biostimulants still has significant room for expansion, as it is estimated that only 1 in 10 agricultural professionals is currently aware of the benefits of these new agricultural inputs. This suggests a substantial potential for future adoption as awareness and training efforts increase.
Spain: A Technological Leader in the Biostimulant Market
Historically, non-microbial biostimulants, primarily amino acids and seaweed extracts, have dominated the Spanish market. Seaweed extracts accounted for approximately 15% of non-microbial biostimulant sales, with an annual growth rate of 6.1%, whereas amino acids (the remaining 85%) recently showed a slight contraction.
Upward trend
This indicates an upward trend in the adoption of seaweed-based solutions, gaining ground within the portfolio of biostimulants used by farmers.
Geographical Adoption in Europe
Regarding geographical adoption within the EU, the largest markets are concentrated in countries with intensive, high-value agriculture. France is currently the EU country with the highest consumption of biostimulants, driven by the push to reduce chemical inputs in favor of biological alternatives.
Italy, Spain, and Portugal also exhibit notable development, forming, along with France, the core of the most commercially significant markets for these products in Europe.
The popularity of biostimulants in these countries is linked to their extensive horticultural, fruit, and viticulture crops, where the quality and resilience improvements offered by biostimulants are particularly valued. Conversely, in Northern and Eastern Europe, adoption has been slower but is gradually increasing as the need for more sustainable agricultural practices grows. It is worth noting that biostimulant use is no longer limited to specialized crops. While they were initially applied mainly to horticultural and fruit crops, in recent years, they have also gained ground in extensive crops (cereals, oilseeds). In fact, row crops (such as wheat, corn, and soybeans) already represent the largest percentage of biostimulant use worldwide (~75% in 2022), indicating that these tools are being integrated into conventional agriculture to improve efficiency and resilience, even in large-scale farming.herramientas se están incorporando a la agricultura convencional para mejorar la eficiencia y resiliencia incluso en cultivos de gran escala.
The Future of the Sector: Innovation and Expansion
The future outlook for seaweed-based biostimulants in agriculture is highly optimistic, both in Spain and the rest of Europe. Various market analyses agree on forecasting strong, continued growth. Globally, the biostimulant sector is expected to reach between$8 billion and $10 billion by 2030, nearly tripling its current value.
Specifically, seaweed extract-based products are emerging as the segment with the largest market share within this projected expansion due to their versatile effectiveness and the growing preference among farmers for natural inputs.
In Europe, the projections are also high, with an estimated compound annual growth rate of around 10-12% in the second half of this decade. This would mean that the European biostimulant market would nearly double by 2028-2030 compared to 2023.
Spain does not have publicly available long-term studies, but given its prominent role, it is likely to follow (or even surpass) the European growth rate. In fact, Spanish companies in the sector report significant annual increases in international sales (+13% in 2023 compared to 2022 in biostimulant exports, according to AEFA), suggesting sustained expansion if current trends continue.
Several factors will drive future growth. On the one hand, the push for more sustainable agriculture strongly favors biostimulants. The European Union, through the Green Deal and the Farm to Fork Strategy, has set highly ambitious environmental targets: reducing chemical fertilizer use by 20% and synthetic pesticide use by 50% by 2030, while increasing organic farming to 25% of total agricultural land within the same timeframe.
To achieve these goals without sacrificing yields, large-scale adoption of tools like biostimulants will be necessary, as they help maintain productivity with fewer chemical inputs.
Indeed, seaweed-based biostimulants fit perfectly into sustainable intensification strategies: they improve nutrient use efficiency (reducing fertilizer losses to the environment) and strengthen crops against biotic and abiotic stress, decreasing reliance on agrochemicals.
Additionally, their use in commodity crops (cereals, oilseeds) will be explored to maximize yields in the context of climate change. For example, Brazil and other American countries are rapidly increasing their consumption of seaweed extracts to manage stress in soybeans, corn, and other grains.
This internationalization of the market will drive business volume and possibly attract additional investment and acquisitions from large agrochemical corporations interested in participating in this expanding niche.
The seaweed biostimulants sector relies heavily on R&D to develop more effective and specialized products. One area of advancement is improving extraction and formulation methods for algae compounds. Traditionally, techniques such as alkaline or enzymatic hydrolysis have been used to obtain extracts. Today, research is focused on gentler processes that preserve the integrity of sensitive molecules (e.g., cold extraction or ultrasound extraction) to maximize biological activity. Additionally, extracts from different species of seaweed are being combined to achieve synergistic effects.
At the same time, solutions are being developed to improve the stability and shelf life of these products, ensuring they retain their properties during storage and transportation. Since seaweed extracts are natural products, they can be more susceptible to degradation than traditional chemicals.
The growing demand for seaweed-based biostimulants presents the challenge of obtaining sufficient high-quality biomass. Unlike Asia, Europe has relatively low seaweed production, so projects are being launched to scale up its cultivation. Currently, the European seaweed industry is still in its infancy and requires significant growth to become commercially viable.
Initiatives such as the SEAMARK project or I3-4 SEAWEED (EU-funded) aim to innovate in the selective breeding and large-scale cultivation of macroalgae. Macroalgae demonstrate their versatility in revolutionizing key sectors such as the food industry, cosmetics, and agriculture, where they are used in the production of biostimulants and biofertilizers that contribute to reducing conventional fertilization and abiotic stress, among other benefits.
Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) systems are being explored, where seaweed is cultivated alongside fish or shellfish farming, making use of nutrients and reducing costs. Additionally, offshore seaweed farming in open ocean environments is being tested. Some companies are also utilizing by-products from the seaweed industry (e.g., residues from seaweed harvested for other purposes) to manufacture biostimulants, promoting a circular economy. In Spain, coastal regions such as Galicia have significant potential to join this value chain by sustainably harvesting native seaweed or establishing seaweed nurseries, generating local raw materials for the biostimulant industry and creating synergies with the blue economy.
In the future, biostimulants will be increasingly integrated into sustainable agricultural practices. In organic farming, these inputs are already a key pillar (as they are permitted and naturally sourced). In conventional agriculture, they are expected to be incorporated into integrated management programs, such as: precision fertilization (applying biostimulants through localized irrigation alongside reduced doses of chemical fertilizers) or biological control strategies (e.g., seaweed extracts that induce plant resistance to reduce the need for fungicides).
Digital transformation in agriculture will also play a significant role, as it enables real-time crop monitoring and the application of biostimulants at key stress moments to maximize their effects.
New European Regulations: Recognition of the Sector’s Importance
Until recently, one of the barriers to the biostimulants sector was the lack of a clear international regulatory framework. Biostimulants lacked a unified legal definition, forcing each country to classify and register them according to its own criteria.
This created significant uncertainty and numerous obstacles for companies like Ficosterra, which had to obtain approvals separately in each market.
However, starting in 2018-2019, specific regulations began to emerge that recognized this category of products, significantly changing the regulatory landscape.
In the European Union, a major milestone was the adoption of Regulation (EU) 2019/1009 on fertilizing products. This new regulation (adopted in 2019 and enforced since July 2022) introduced an official definition of plant biostimulants in EU legislation for the first time. According to this definition: “A biostimulant is a fertilizing product that functions to stimulate plant nutrition processes (independently of its nutrient content) with the aim of improving at least one of these aspects: nutrient use efficiency, tolerance to abiotic stress, crop quality characteristics, or nutrient availability in the soil/rhizosphere.”
Additionally, Regulation 2019/1009 established common standards for quality, safety, and labeling for all these products in the European market.
An important development was the creation of specific functional categories, distinguishing between microbial biostimulants (Category 6A) and non-microbial biostimulants (Category 6B). This differentiation formally included seaweed extracts (non-microbial) as recognized inputs under fertilizing product legislation—something that was not the case under the previous Regulation 2003/2003, which only covered inorganic fertilizers and basic soil amendments.
Since 2022, biostimulants can obtain CE marking and be freely marketed across the European single market if they meet the established common standards.
This regulatory harmonization was highly anticipated by the industry, as it reduces regulatory fragmentation and facilitates access to multiple countries with a single certification.
Regulatory Framework in Spain
In Spain, before the European regulation came into effect, biostimulants were regulated under the national fertilizer regulations. Royal Decree 506/2013 (on fertilizer products) included these inputs indirectly, under the category of “other fertilizers or special products,” particularly those of organic origin. Spain required prior registration of each product in the Fertilizer Registry before it could be marketed, ensuring, in principle, its agronomic efficacy and safety for health and the environment.
Following the implementation of the EU regulation, Spain has adapted its regulatory framework to align with it: the European regulation applies directly (allowing the sale of “EU fertilizing products” with CE marking), but at the same time, national legislation remains in force for products that companies choose to register only for the domestic market. This means that a manufacturer in Spain can either certify its biostimulant under the EU regulation, gaining access to the entire EU market or register it under Royal Decree 506/2013, if the company prefers to focus solely on the Spanish market.
In practice, many companies opt for CE marking to take advantage of the open European market. Meanwhile, Spain has strengthened its framework for sustainable fertilization control in recent years (e.g., Royal Decree 1051/2022 on sustainable soil nutrition), in line with European strategies to reduce chemical input use and promote safer agricultural products. While these policies do not directly regulate biostimulants, they create a favorable environment for their adoption by encouraging more efficient and eco-friendly fertilization practices.
Challenges in Biostimulant Regulation
Despite recent advances, some regulatory barriers still hinder full market expansion. One example within the EU is the limited list of authorized microorganisms initially included in Regulation 2019/1009 for the formulation of microbial biostimulants: currently, only four genera are permitted (Azotobacter, Mycorrhizae, Rhizobium, and Azospirillum).
This restriction has been criticized by experts as a weakness in the regulation since many other beneficial bacteria and fungi developed by the industry are not included, forcing companies to wait for future updates to expand the list.
Another barrier is the certification process itself: obtaining CE marking requires conducting tests and documenting the declared effects of the biostimulant, which entails costs and time. SMEs in the sector must invest in scientific research to support their claims (e.g., “improves nutrient absorption” or “increases drought tolerance”). While this helps raise overall market quality, it can also be resource-intensive for smaller companies.
In the short term, administrative complexity is another challenge due to the coexistence of regulatory frameworks: companies and distributors must navigate both European regulations and national residual laws.
However, there is confidence that over time, the market will shift predominantly to the common European standard, simplifying these administrative processes.
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“Expedientes Nº08/25/BU/0017 y Nº08/25/BU/0055
Expansión internacional y consolidación de mercados para Ficosterra
Proyecto de subvención destinadas a financiar proyectos de expansión internacional de las PYMES de Castilla y León (2025), con el objetivo de impulsar su presencia en nuevos mercados exteriores y fortalecer su competitividad a nivel global”
