Product diversification for salmon farming business

Georgina Robinson, who is urchin and seaweed co-ordinator with the Scourie-based company, has just completed a business plan for the project, and the company have been awarded a grant of £98,500 from HIE Caithness and Sutherland to help with capital and management costs. She told the newspaper that sea urchin roe was particularly popular in Europe and is served at seafood and sushi restaurants in London, but they are hoping the UK market will grow. She added that, although seaweed is used in the food industry, they are aiming to sell it for use in cosmetics. The company are growing the sea urchins and the seaweed alongside the salmon because the urchins can feed on particles from the pellets fed to the salmon and the seaweed feeds on the nutrients produced by salmon farming. "In this way, instead of energy being lost to the environment, it is converted into secondary crops, thus creating product diversification," she told the newspaper.