Economic Feasibility Study on Seaweed

Seaweed farming in Scotland is at the early days of what is, globally, becoming a sector which has significant growth opportunities involving coastal communities.

There is increased interest across the world, with higher levels of interest and developments taking place in the North Atlantic, which is becoming a geographical area of increasing interest for a range of international and national investors.

The size of farms considered in this project ranged from 8 to 64 hectares (growing areas) with a number of opportunities identified for returns on investment. Investment in farms will need to be associated with the development of processing infrastructure, to get products to market. A key question is what type of infrastructure, and what are the market drivers associated with this? A challenge with Scotland or rest of UK (rUK) markets is the visibility of seaweed as a food item, although this is changing, slowly. Market development efforts will be key to supporting the sector to grow.
The full report developed by Enscape Consulting Ltd can be accessed HERE.