Seaweed’s day in the sun New wave of interest is growing Scottish sector
Hailed for its nutritional value and use in plastics and biofuel, seaweed’s rising importance is now turning the tide for Scottish growers
IN a few weeks’ time, seaweed farmer Lawrie Stove will find out just how big this year’s harvest is.
His long, wispy strands of sugar kelp and floaty winged kelp, rich in vitamins and hailed by some as the next big thing to hit Scotland’s food sector, are currently submerged below the surface of the sea off Oban.
But soon the long lines of ropes to which they are attached will be hauled in, revealing for the first time just what the combination of the underwater ecosystem and a lot of patience has produced.
It is a process which has been undertaken for centuries by seaweed farmers in the Far East: there are records of seaweed being cultivated as a crop in Tokyo Bay in the 1670s, when farmers used bamboo branches to collect seaweed spores and let the river’s nutrients encourage their growth.
These days, commercial seaweed operations in Japan, China, Indonesia, South Korea, and the Philippines are responsible for around 98 per cent of global seaweed production. In Japan alone, seaweed farming is said to be worth around $2 billion, and globally the figure is $9bn.
Hailed for its nutritional value and carbon-capture properties – even as a substitute for plastics and as biofuel – seaweed has become increasingly visible to Scots and consumers around the world in sushi, savoury snacks, and skincare.
Such is enthusiasm for the future of seaweed, a recent report from the Scottish Government’s Seaweed Review Steering Group suggests what is currently a sector worth £510,000 per year and employing 60 people could increase substantially by 2040, growing to £21.1 million if the food production sector continues at its current rate.
It predicts it could even grow up to an impressive £71.2m should it race ahead at a higher rate along with increases in the biotechnology sector’s use of seaweed.
No ‘gold rush’
STOVE, currently counting down the days until it is time to harvest Seaweed Farming Scotland’s crop, is enthusiastic about Scotland’s future as a seaweed producer.
However, he is a little less convinced that we are on the cusp of a kelp klondike gold rush moment. Seaweed farming is unlikely to make anybody very rich very fast, he says.
“There has been a lot of hype about seaweed,” he cautions. “A lot of money is pouring into it, and a lot of parallels are being made between seaweed farms and mussel farms. But there’s not been a new mussel farm in Scotland for 10 years because the return on investment takes a long time. “I’m a fan of rope-grown Scottish seaweed,” he stresses, “but it’s never going to be the next whisky or the next big renewable product.
We would be doing well to get to the same size of the mussel industry.”
Comparisons with other sectors may be wishful thinking. He continues: “To use seaweed as a replacement product for plastic, for example – you would need enormous quantities.
“What we grow in Scotland is seasonal, you have an annual crop that doesn’t lead to a high-volume market.”
Nevertheless, seaweed, which once sustained starving islanders during famines and which has been foraged for centuries – the monks of Iona are said to have collected dulse from the rocks – is entering a new era.
On the Ross of Mull, community-run Aird Fada Seaweed Farm has just been handed £67,000 funding from the Argyll and Bute Infrastructure Fund to develop onshore seaweed processing facilities at Bendoran, where it hopes to freeze and dry its crop.
Sweet success
IT, too, is preparing for a springtime seaweed harvest – the community expects to haul up at least 20 tonnes of sugar kelp from the six-hectare farm in Loch Scridain, the country’s only community-run seaweed farm.
“The first year of harvesting will fund next year’s seeding, with the aim of increasing capacity year on year to create a profit-making business,” the group says. Profits generated by Aird Fada will be reinvested in the farm or other community benefit projects.
The farm group points to the carboncapture benefits of growing seaweed, while farming is seen as a way to protect wild stocks. “By farming kelp,” it adds,
The industry at the moment probably equates to salmon farming in the 1970s
“we prevent the need to harvest from wild forests.”
Innovations within the sector have also received support: the Pebble Trust, which supports sustainable initiatives and projects, has recently provided funds for the development of a prototype solarpowered seaweed dryer which would enable small kelp producers to dry seaweed sustainably.
Owen Stevens, chair of the Scottish Seaweed Industry Association says: “The industry at the moment is what I’d describe as ‘nescient’, and probably equates to salmon farming in the 1970s, where it is pioneering and moving from being a backyard venture to the beginnings of an industry.
“In the past, seaweed had a wide range of uses but it fell out of favour. We are now revisiting the whole story of seaweed and doing it in a way that makes sense to our modern palates.
“It is a really exciting new sector of agriculture that is really still just developing.
“It’s well behind salmon and shellfish by quite some distance, but with the right investment and encouragement, it will get there.”