Ambitious £50 million plan unveiled for seaweed industry in north-west Sutherland to tackle depopulation

A HUGELY ambitious plan to create a sustainable seaweed industry in north-west Sutherland has been unveiled in a bid to tackle depopulation and economic issues in the area.

The £50 million community-led initiative will see the establishment of high-quality, ethical seaweed production farms and small pier-side based “innovation centres” to process the seaweed.

The business plan also includes renting out space in the new centres to other businesses and building around 30 homes to address the local housing shortage.

In total, around 30 jobs are expected to be created.

Dr Cait Murray-Green, chief executive of Strategic Scientific Consulting, which prepared the plan, said: “I am quietly excited about what will happen over the coming months and years.”

The scheme is being taken forward by a Seawood Interest Group made up of representatives from Assynt Development Trust, Kinlochbervie Community Development Company, Scourie Community Development Company and North West 2045.

Strategic Scientific Consulting, together with Argyll Aquaculture, a seaweed farming consultancy, was commissioned to prepare a business plan after Highland Council granted community regeneration funding.

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Dr Murray-Green said: “We have come up with a pretty ambitious, not unrealistic, but definitely challenging solution to the problem of how do you get a viable seaweed industry in a remote and rural location while also meeting the needs of the community.”

She said the idea was to be “big, bold and ambitious” and aim to produce the target of 200 tonnes of seaweed a year immediately rather than working up to it in stages.

“It is only when we get to that scale that we will be able to serve the needs of existing businesses that buy seaweed,” she said.

High-quality, fast-growing kelps would be planted during the winter at a number of yet-to-be- announced sites and harvested in the spring before being processed at pier-side innovation centres at Lochinver, Scourie and Kinlochbervie. Seaweed would also be collected from the shore.

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There is potential for further innovation through use of mobile processing in the future for sites in Coigach and Durness.

The way the seaweed is processed, whether chilled, frozen or dried, would depend on the needs of the end user - seaweed is used as a food source, in cosmetics and skin care, as a fertiliser and for industrial applications.

Discussions have already taken place with buyers located in the UK and overseas who are interested in ethically produced seaweed from Scottish waters.

Dr Murray-Green said: “There will be additional space in the innovation centres to share with the community and other small companies not necessarily associated with seaweed. It could be a group of teenagers who want to create a software company. It could be other manufacturers.”

She added that there is currently an unmet demand for residential and commercial space in the area.

“If we add in a seaweed industry on top of that, it is not going to work unless we plan for our own housing,” she said.

Companies will be formed to look after the seaweed operations and innovation centres.

Dr Murray-Green continued: “The next phase is to secure funding to take the business plan forward and to bring in additional experts to get the necessary licences and to create individual and tailored plans for the innovation centres and housing.

“There will be an open consultation in the community before the final selection of seaweed farm sites and licence applications are made.

“With a good wind behind us and everything falling into place at the right time, we would aim to start operations in 2028.”

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