The most well-known and still most important red seaweed used for manufacturing carrageenan is Chondrus crispus, which grows along the coast of the Northern part of the Atlantic, the main harvesting areas being maritime provinces of Canada, Maine, Brittany in France, and the Iberian peninsula.

Chondrus crispus is a dark red parsley-like plant which grows attached to the rocks at a depth of up to approx. 3 meters.

Most of the "moss" is harvested by rakes from small boats. The rakes may be operated by hand only or drawn after a boat.

The wet moss is brought to drying plants operated by the carrageenan manufacturers and dried to less than 20% humidity to preserve the quality of the seaweed and facilitate transportation to the extraction plant.

Other red seaweed are growing in importance as carrageenan raw materials, improving stability of supply and broadening the range of properties which can be achieved. Important species are Eucheuma cottonii, which yields kappa-carrageenan, and Eucheuma spinosum which yields iota-carrageenan. These Eucheuma species are harvested along the coasts of the Philippines and Indonesia.

Long term stability of supply and price of carrageenan raw material will be ensured by seaweed farming. Seaweed farms are already operated on the Philippines, yielding sufficient Eucheuma cottonii of good and consistent quality to cover the present demand. Eucheuma spinosum, the raw material for iota-carrageenan has recently been farmed successfully.

The advantages of seaweed farming are obvious:

• Independence of fluctuating climatic conditions.
• Independence of the labor intensive seaweed collecting.
• A more pure raw material.
• The possibility of selecting seaweed strains with high carrageenan content and yielding carrageenans of desired compositions and properties.

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