Welsh set sights on world seaweed market

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Rob Fletcher

Called Selwyn’s Seaweed, and run by Ashley Jones – the fifth generation of his family to have traded in porphyra products – the company currently has the capacity to produce up to 50,000 sheets of nori a day, which they roast, then turn into value-added seaweed snacks.

As Ashley explains to Fish Farming Expert: “Seaweed has traditionally been a part of the Welsh diet, with sheets of it roasted to make laverbread, which has been a big part of the family seafood business.

“However, with demand for laverbread declining in recent years, I was interested to find alternative seaweed products and a trip to Japan inspired the idea of making seaweed crisps.”

The idea soon gained momentum and has since been given further momentum by the purchase of a £500,000 seaweed roasting facility, which became operational in July, thanks in part to Welsh government funding – the Welsh government officially opened it this week.

However, Ashley explains, demand is currently too high for all the seaweed to come from his local, hand-picked, wild, Welsh sources and he is having to import part of the ingredients.

“This is from ideal,” he explains, “so we’re currently beginning to grow our own seaweed and this is something we want to expand.”

“We had scientists over from Japan, who said the growing conditions in Wales are excellent and, in fact we should be able to have a longer growing period than in Japan, where it’s only 3-4 months per year.

“As a result we brought over a number 2m x 20m nets to grow the nori on and the trial results have been very good so far – the nets float on the surface and the seaweed can be harvested by boat every two weeks.

“This means it’s only 3-4cm long at the time and is much tenderer than the hand-picked wild seaweed – it’s truly melt-in-the-mouth.”

While the trials have been very promising, Ashley is keen to roll out the project on a much bigger scale and thinks that it would tie in nicely with current plans to build a tidal lagoon near Swansea.

The scheme centres around renewable energy production, but Ashley feels that the 11km2 lagoon would also be the perfect place to cultivate porphyra – with a 10-12 month growing season and the capacity to produce at least 1 million sheets – enough for 800,000 bags of seaweed snacks – a year.

“While the wild stocks get decimated every time there’s a westerly gale, the lagoon would offer the perfect sheltered location for growing the seaweed,” Ashley reflects, “and there are also plans to site a hatchery there too.

“Not only could this produce the seaweed spores to ensure steady production of nori for us, but it would also house a hatchery for shellfish such as oysters, to help supply other UK aquaculture producers.”

Construction of the lagoon is currently set to start in March and be completed within three years and – if successful – similar projects could be rolled out in other parts of the UK, with the likes of Cardiff, Newport, North Devon and Morecambe Bay currently being considered, according to Ashley.

Should this occur, and should the lagoons prove to be fertile ground for growing nori, a UK seaweed industry could conceivably begin to make inroads in the Far East.