OREANDA-NEWS In the village of Berezovka in the Republic of Karelia, the installation of wall panels and roofs of two workshops of a new high-tech algae processing plant is being completed, the launch of the enterprise is scheduled for this year, the press service of the regional government reports.

Biomedical Innovative Technologies company will launch an innovative production of dietary supplements, cosmetics and baby food from kelp and fucus, which the company extracts from the White Sea. The production equipment has already been purchased from Chinese manufacturers. Its installation will begin in the near future.

Dietary supplements and cosmetic products are a new direction for Karelia, but the region has great potential due to the availability of unique biological resources. The reserves of brown algae in the White Sea amount to thousands of tons, but this potential is largely not being exploited, which creates an opportunity for investors to develop new projects.

"In recent years, a little more than a thousand tons have been mined in Karelia. We can extract much more (algae – ed.). Moreover, our algae are unique in their chemical composition. Today we mainly extract fucus, including the one that is thrown out by storms. And it is clear that the prospects here are very serious both for the food industry and for medicine," said Artur Parfenchikov, Head of the Republic of Karelia.

He noted that this plant is quite large and will process 500 tons of algae per year.