OWN A SEAWEED FARM
Seaweed is the future, it has many uses from a sustainable human food to bio fuel, animal feed and health to edible food packaging, eco friendly fertilizer and much more.
Owning or part owning a seaweed farm is an exciting and financially rewarding business, not only will it give you a healthy return and income but you will be an active part of the new seaweed culture; changing the perception of seaweeds, providing healthy alternatives and sustainable foods for both humans and animals.
Growing seaweed offers an excellent income, the seaweed grows during the winter months and only requires minimum tending, it doesn't need water or fertiliser and once the lines are in the water, they only need to be checked occasionally. .
By farming seaweeds, you will not only be helping mankind change it's perception of this sustainable healthy food but you will also be helping the Oceans and marine life by providing habitat for them and helping remove carbon from the ocean while it grows.
The overwhelming benefits of seaweed are starting to gather pace among well-informed consumers. There is a heightened demand for seaweed in all its forms, with Global Market Insights predicting that the commercial seaweed market will exceed $87 billion by 2024.
It is up to you what you do with your seaweed harvest, however seaweed is very diverse and with more and more people becoming health conscious and more people turning to vegetarianism and veganism you shouldn't have any problems selling the seaweed on. You can also process the seaweed into your own unique products, pickles, breads, chutneys, soups, dried seaweed or simply sell it on. Or simply sell it in bulk either fresh or dried, Pharmaceutical, Cosmetics and Agricultural companies buy huge amounts of seaweeds for their products and more recently there has been an increase in interest from Asia, due to the warming seas and pollutants in there own waters.
Ownership or Partnership?
1) We are offering two options to own a Seaweed farm in 2023, firstly complete ownership with a cost of POA, (in an area of your choice) run by you with our help. We will advise you through the setting up phase and help plan the infrastructure and laying of equipment, including bottom weights / Eco weights / anchors, buoys, floats, lines and importantly supplying 1km of seeded seaweed lines in 100m lengths to go onto the growing lines.
Also help with the licencing paperwork and legal documents, advice on harvesting and the sale of your seaweed (site approval is subject to surveys). A licence to farm seaweed is valid for five years after which it will need to be renewed. The cost of the licence and payments to the MMO or NRW or Marine Scotland and the Crown Estate are not included.
2) We are now able to offer the chance to have 10 x 100m seaweed lines run alongside ours site in Nova Scotia, Canada. We do the day-to-day work, checking on buoys and lines where required, checking water quality and temperature and the growth rate of the seaweed. Also help with finding buyers or selling through us, and we can harvest the seaweed for you. The starting price for ten lines is just £20,000 for a five year investment. There is also an opportunity to get involved in IMTA in Canada by investing in Oysters and Clams, grown alongside the seaweed.
Please email us at enquiries@greenoceanfarming.com if you are interested.
Investing your money in seaweed farming also help the planet, sequestering carbon and nitrogen as it grows.
Growth, Profit and Returns
The current price for wet seaweed (Kelp) for human consumption is £2.50 - £3 per kilogram - a 100m line will give you around 1000 -1200 Kg of wet seaweed, some lines may be less some maybe more.
If the seaweed was dried it would command a higher price, but obviously there would be a cost in drying and transporting the seaweed. We can also help you find a buyer, or sell it for you. We are also working on innovative ways to preserve the seaweed in bulk once harvested.
Our own seaweeds are destined for food production, bio plastic, fertiliser, biochar, plant fibre clothing and a substitute to cotton products. Other uses for UK seaweed are - Animal feed, Bio-Fuel, Bio stimulants.
Current Retail prices for fresh and frozen UK seaweeds are -
Kelp £29.99/kilo Dulce £27.95/kilo, Sea Lettuce/£29 kilo, Sea Spaghetti/£21.95, Mixed bag/£27.95
Please note: We are not able to offer boat trips or 'jolly's' out to any of our sites.
Do you have a question? Then please contact Alec direct at alec@greenoceanfarming.com
NB We do not offer boat trips or sight seeing tours of any of our seaweed sites, due to health and safety and insurance restrictions.
What Is It All About?
Please watch the following video (contains some swearing and Political References which do not necessarily represent the views of Green Ocean Farming). Although it relates to a larger scale seaweed farm in the USA, it gives you some idea of what can be achieved within a couple of years.
Image above by Stephanie Stroud for GreenWave USA
The Humble algae is the hot new cash crop — and could be a surprising key to sustaining our growing population.
“Seaweed is very important for its natural ecosystem values” - Charles Yarish, PhD, leading seaweed expert and a professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology said. “Farming it is a win-win for the environment and the economy
So, how is it that these rootless sea tangles are on their way to major cash-crop status?
Marine plants (most of them photosynthetic algae, like seaweed) produce around 80 percent of the oxygen we breathe, meaning if they disappeared from the face of the earth tomorrow, our species would struggle to survive. Seaweed also provides a key habitat for marine creatures, and the first link in the aquatic food chain. Without it, the entire system collapses. It is also the food of the future and is available now!
But seaweed is also a nutrient-packed superfood that’s sustainable to grow — it requires no fresh water (an increasingly scarce resource as the planet population approaches 11 billion people) and no chemical fertilisers. It also packs a protein- and nutrient-rich punch. “Kelp is the new kale. Watch out because it’s coming, and it will be everywhere in the next decade.”
You could argue that seaweed is already everywhere, at least in a subtle way. Mostly grown at thriving farms in Asia, it’s been quietly incorporated into products likely in your pantry and bathroom right now. What’s not being cultivated for food is bought up by other industries. Seaweed extracts are used as textural additives in soups, jams, dressings and ice creams. They’re also a not-so-secret ingredient for brewers, since seaweed makes for a long-lasting, pillowy head on beer. Additionally, from January 2011 through October 2015, 2 percent of body-care products launched globally, including shampoos, lotions and toothpastes, contained seaweed. It may even be the world’s next great biofuel.
Translation: Seaweed is money. The industry was worth $6 billion globally in 2014, and that number is expected to hit $18 billion by 2021.
Considering these myriad benefits, Yarish sat down in 2009 while on sabbatical from UConn to contemplate why seaweed farming hadn’t yet taken hold in America and Europe. At the time, the U.S. couldn’t claim a single commercial operation. Today, there are more than 20, with more on the horizon, so let's not get left behind and get the UK seaweed farms on the radar.
They don’t grow passively. As they mature, seaweeds absorb nutrients from the water, including carbon and nitrogen from agricultural runoff or the burning of fossil fuels. In other words, seaweed is a superhero of the sea, tackling two main culprits: global warming and ocean acidification. By sucking up these nutrients, seaweed helps restore the pH level of the water, protecting biodiversity threatened by a changing climate. According to The Guardian, if seaweed farms covered just 9 percent of the world’s oceans, we could counteract all human carbon emissions.
© Green Ocean Farming UK