CENTRAL MAINE • June 9, 2024
Since Akua’s kelp burgers launched in 2021, the company has sold more than 1 million of the plant-based patties. Made with kelp harvested by the farmers of the Maine Family Seafarm Cooperative, the burgers are sold in roughly 1,000 grocery stores and 200 restaurants nationwide. Akua processes 40,000 pounds of Maine kelp each year and plans to move its burger production to Freeport from Atlanta this summer. “The hamburger is the symbol of everything that’s wrong with the American food system. A kelp burger is the opposite,” said Akua CEO Courtney Boyd Meyers. Like Akua, Atlantic Sea Farms processes its own seaweed and sells its kelp burgers to grocery stores. Atlantic Sea Farms operates 40 kelp farms stretching from Casco Bay to Eastport.