Turning Invasive Sargassum into Jobs — Compete Caribbean's Backing for Saint Lucia's Algas Organics

Registered in 2014 by founder Johanan Dujon, Algas Organics set up what is documented as the world's first Sargassum-seaweed processing facility at La Caye, Dennery, on Saint Lucia's east coast, converting the invasive seaweed choking local beaches and fishing grounds into an organic bio-fertiliser, 'Algas Total Plant Tonic', launched in 2015. Early funding came from the Global Environment Facility's Small Grants Programme and UNDP, alongside the Saint Lucia Fisher Folk Co-operative Society.

Through project RG-T3560 (2020–2023), the IDB-executed Compete Caribbean Partnership Facility — funded jointly by the IDB, the UK's FCDO, the Caribbean Development Bank and the Government of Canada — provided US$250,000 in matching-grant financing alongside US$250,000 in counterpart investment, after assessing the firm's management capacity to scale, access new markets and leverage further funding.

The support helped the company go on to secure a further US$200,000 grant from IDB Lab and a US$125,000 loan, and is credited with creating 32 new jobs, 20 of them for women.

As a single-firm case study rather than a sector-wide programme, its results are specific to this company; broader diffusion of the Sargassum bio-fertiliser model to other Caribbean coastal communities has not been independently documented in available sources.