Our world needs all kelp it can get
New academy set to boost industry
GROWTH AREA
It’s been heralded as a solution to greenhouse emissions from cows – and now seaweed farms are set to spring up along Britain’s coastline.
Experts want to grow the industry as it is seen as an eco-friendly crop.
The Government has pledged £407,000 for a new Seaweed Academy – the UK’s first facility to advise start- ups, run training workshops and share research.
It will be based at SAMS, the Scottish Association for Marine Science, in Oban, and will help the UK gain a slice of the global seaweed farming industry, estimated to be worth £11billion a year.
One of Scotland’s seaweed success stories is Shore Seaweed.
The five-year-old firm sources much of its crops from the beaches of Caithness and farms species that can only be found at the bottom of the ocean.
Once harvested, the plants are washed, dried and milled at its processing plant in Wick.
The end product is used to make snacking clusters, crisps, pestos and tapenades that can be found in shops across the UK and Europe.
The firm also sells packets of dried seaweed to wholesale customers in the food and cosmetics industry.
Shore Seaweed managing director Peter Elbourne said: “There isn’t one seaweed that’s good for everything. Some are more similar than others but there is such a variety that you have to have knowledge of the raw material to be able to use it properly.
“We had to learn everything from scratch. A lot of effort came from a lot of people, none of whom had ever done anything like it before.”
Earlier this month, supermarket chain Morrisons announced it would trial feeding its cows seaweed supplements to reduce their burps and flatulence, which contribute to climate-changing methane in the atmosphere.
Studies show changing the diet of cattle to include seaweed can cut methane emissions by 80 per cent.
Seaweed is used as a “superfood” or seasoning and can be used to make fabrics for clothes and biofuel. It’s also claimed to be a beauty booster.
The underwater vegetation is one of the most environmentally friendly raw materials available because it does not need fresh water, land or fertilisers to grow. Experts believe the growth of the industry could play a role in hitting targets for carbon reduction in the UK. Cefas, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, has called aquaculture the world’s fastest growing food sector, with seaweed production doubling between 2000 and 2014. It estimated the industry was worth £ 4.7billion in 2014 but 95 per cent of production was based in Asia and that value has now more than doubled.