Company History

Cambrian's founder, Stephen Pheiffer, is a pioneer in the field of kelp processing. Stephen Pheiffer has spent his entire career in the field of kelp, specifically Ecklonia maxima kelp, found off the shore of his native country of South Africa.  His interest in kelp began at the University of Cape Town where he obtained a post graduate degree in marine biology.  Immediately after university, he began to work for the government in its Department of Sea Fisheries.  Since then, Mr. Pheiffer has been involved in many successful entrepreneurial ventures all closely aligned with the research, formulation, production, and marketing of organic, Ecklonia maxima kelp-based products.

Cambrian founder Stephen Pheiffer.

In 1980, he and a partner developed an entirely new commercial kelp process when they patented a technology called the Mechanical Cell-Shear Process. This process involved scuba divers harvesting fresh, crisp Ecklonia maxima kelp off the west coast of Africa. After a thorough cleaning, the kelp was subjected to mechanical cell shearing allowing the cytoplasm to be released, retained and concentrated in a process that avoids heat, dehydration, chemical digestion, and freezing of the raw material.  The resulting product contains and retains all the compounds found in fresh, natural kelp in a viable, biologically active form. 

In the 1990’s, Mr. Pheiffer formed his own company (that company, Agro Organics, Inc., merged into Cambrian Biotechnologies in April of 2007) to further refine this process.  Today’s process is called Cell Burst Technology and allows the kelp to retain even higher levels of active, organic plant biostimulants (cytokines and auxins).  For agricultural purposes, this means application requires smaller volumes per surface area than other seaweed extracts.  This ensures cost-effectiveness and consistently improves crop yields above those derived from seaweed products of the other processes.  This improvement is documented by over 24 scientific publications, three PhD theses and numerous field trials.

Cambrian is closely associated with Cambrian Biotech South Africa (Pty) Ltd, (Cambrian SA), a South African-based, kelp processing company located in the port town, of Hermanus, SA, within sixty miles of the ocean kelp beds.