Potential scale of Scottish seaweed-based industries: research paper

1 Introduction

1.1 Background

1.1.1 Seaweed (marine macroalgae) provides a source of food, animal feed and fertiliser as well as being used in a wide range of industries such as cosmetics, nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals. The global seaweed industry has been estimated to be worth €8.1 billion per year (Barbier et al. 2019). At a global level, the production of seaweed as a raw material is dominated by cultivated seaweed from Asia, whilst in Europe, production is predominately via harvesting of the wild resource.

1.1.2 Scotland's nearshore waters host a wide range of different seaweed species with a high abundance of some potentially commercially important species (Burrows et al, 2018). Although the established seaweed-based industry in Scotland is small, there is a growing interest in further developing the commercial seaweed-based industry, for example through creating new high value products from seaweed, new entrants to the sector and through cultivating seaweed to supply various existing and emerging markets (e.g. Stanley et al., 2019).

1.1.3 The Scottish Government has initiated a Seaweed Review, overseen by a Seaweed Review Steering Group, to help ensure existing seaweed harvesting activity and future proposals are sustainable, and that Scotland's marine environment is protected. As part of this wider review, the Scottish Government is in the process of building its evidence base to understand how local seaweed-based industries may develop based on resources (harvest from the wild, cultivated or imported from other countries) that could be available to businesses that locate in Scotland. The potential socio-economic impacts of this are also being explored.

1.1.4 ABPmer and RPA were commissioned by Marine Scotland and Crown Estate Scotland to consider the current status and future growth opportunities for Scottish seaweed-based industries, develop plausible scenarios for the industry development in Scotland and assess the potential impacts (positive and negative) on the economy and wider society. This research will inform the Scottish Government Seaweed Review's wider research needs on the environmental and socio-economic implications of a growing seaweed harvesting and cultivation sector.

1.2 Study aims and objectives

1.2.1 The research focuses on understanding the potential scale and type of seaweed-based industries that currently exist, or may establish, in Scotland based on potential sources of raw material (seaweed) and emerging market opportunities for various seaweed-based products. This includes understanding the wild or cultivated seaweed resource that would need to be made available to industries establishing in Scotland, the potential sources and volumes of the raw material required, market opportunities and potential, and their probable impacts on the economy and wider society in Scotland. The overall aim of the research is to increase understanding of the potential for seaweed-based industries in Scotland.

1.2.2 The specific objectives of the research are to:

• Determine the potential scope (e.g. by product type or species), scale (volumes, turnover, gross value added (GVA) and employment) and location of seaweed based industries that may establish in Scotland, clearly setting out where there is potential to rely on wild growing seaweed species, cultivated species or imported raw material .
• Identify how the supply chain for various seaweed industries that may establish in Scotland may develop including an assessment of the potential size of their associated indirect economic impacts (turnover, GVA and employment) – upstream and where appropriate downstream.
• Exploring the wider socioeconomic consequences on other industries and communities across Scotland that may arise from both the direct and indirect impacts from local seaweed-based industries, identifying the other industries and communities in Scotland that may be affected positively or negatively by development of seaweed industries and the nature of impacts on these communities.

1.2.3 These objectives were addressed by developing projected future growth scenarios up to 2040. It should be noted that the projected future scenarios have been developed within the context of the current regulatory regime for wild harvesting and seaweed cultivation (described in Appendix A). It was not within the scope of the current study to consider the potential implications of climate change within the projected scenarios. Furthermore, whilst the impact of the UK's recent exit from the European Union and of the COVID-19 pandemic were not specifically accounted for within the projected scenarios, it is acknowledged that these two recent events likely increase the uncertainty around future market opportunities.

1.2.4 The methodological approach to addressing these objectives is described in the relevant report sections below with further detail provided in appendices.