Potential scale of Scottish seaweed-based industries: research paper

Footnotes

1. Stakeholders consulted for this study included seaweed-based industry stakeholders (e.g. existing businesses, potential new entrants, industry representatives) and wider stakeholders comprising regulators, other aquaculture consenting bodies and local enterprise, innovation and research organisations or institutions.

2. Based on the reported and estimated data for eight seaweed-based companies, whose core business relates to seaweed, for which data was available.

3. This is likely to be an underestimate for a number of reasons including that harvested volumes from privately owned (as opposed to Crown Estate Scotland owned) land are not included (see Section 4.2 in the main report for further detail). In 2020, a maximum of approximately 15,000 tonnes of seaweed (all species combined) was consented for harvesting on Crown Estate Scotland owned land/seabed, although it was not considered that harvesting was undertaken at the maximum capacity consented.

4. Induced effects take account of spend by the people employed directly and indirectly on local goods and services. This then provides an additional benefit to the local economy.

5. A biofinery approach to seaweed production has been described by Cefas (2016), Stanley et al. (2019) and BIM (2020) and is described further in Appendix B.

6. As efficient absorbers of nutrients and contaminants, seaweeds have the potential to be used to improve water quality, for example, assimilating waste released from finfish aquaculture installations in a process referred to as integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA; Cefas, 2016).

7. Such contacts were determined through the desk-based review above and liaison with the Project Steering Group (PSG) and the Scottish Seaweed Industry Association (SSIA)

8. The physical properties of alginate, which influences its application within the food and chemical industries, vary depending on its uronic acid composition (the ratio of mannuronic acid to guluronic acid; the M/G ratio).

9. A company or organisation's core business was considered to relate to seaweed if over 50% of their business or products related to seaweed/seaweed products (confirmed through consultation or judged from publicly available information).

10. Where products containing seaweed comprise the majority of the products produced or sold.

11. Note, three businesses identified at a relatively late stage in the project were not contacted directly. Hence information on those businesses was obtained through publicly available information.

12. Micro-entities are those that meet at least two of: annual turnover of not more than £632,000; balance sheet total of not more than £316,000; and average number of employees must not be more than 10. Small companies must meet at least two of: annual turnover of not more than £10.2 million; balance sheet total of not more than £5.1 million; and average number of employees must not be more than 50. Medium-sized companies must meet at least two of: annual turnover of no more than £36 million; balance sheet total of not more than £18 million; and average number of employees must not be more than 250. Any companies that do not meet the criteria for micro-entities, small or medium are large companies.

13. Harvesting seaweed from the foreshore or seabed (i.e. below mean low water springs) managed by Crown Estate Scotland (CES), for commercial reward, requires a licence to be obtained from CES. Where the foreshore is owned by a landowner other than the Crown, the landowner's permission is required

14. The seaweed 'activity mapping' exercise undertaken by the Seaweed Review Group in 2019 indicated that, at that time, there were 13 locations in Scotland in which wild seaweed harvesting was undertaken for commercial purposes. At nine of these locations landownership falls in some areas to the CES and in others to private landlords. A further four areas are solely under private landownership. The volume of seaweed harvested from privately owned land is not reported and hence not known. It is assumed that the volumes harvested from privately owned land is only likely to be substantial (e.g. volumes > 1,000 wet weight tonnes p.a.) for the three larger-scale wild seaweed harvesters in Scotland. Of these seaweed harvesters/companies only one harvests exclusively from privately owned land. Given the lack of information on volumes harvested from privately owned areas, the total volumes harvested from privately owned areas cannot be assessed.

15. Data supplied Marine Scotland Licensing Operations team on 26.04.21 showed that there are now nine licensed seaweed farming sites and another six marine licence applications of seaweed farms being processed. However, it is not known how many of these farms are currently operational.

16. The Companies House Register is available on the Gov.UK website.

17. However, in some cases, it was not possible to report monetary estimates by product group due to confidentiality issues arising when there are a small number of companies involved. Where this is the case, quantitative data for that specific product group is not presented and a more aggregated summary is given, combining more than one product group to protect confidentiality

18. Based on reported and estimated turnover from 6 companies (estimated turnover includes where product value and tonnage was given). The two companies that did not provide turnover data (or had no turnover in the case of the start-up) are not counted in the mean value.

19. Based on reported or estimated profits from 4 companies (estimated profits per product category are based on an assumed turnover by product category, with profit then taken as the same percentage as for the overall company information).

20. Based on reported and estimated turnover from 4 companies. No additional information product value or tonnage was provided so turnover for the remaining companies cannot be estimated.

21. Based on reported or estimated profits from 3 companies (approach to estimated profits as for human food)

22. Based on reported (and estimated) data for 8 companies (note this excludes start-ups). Turnover ranges from less than £10,000 per year to more than £1 million per year, hence the large difference between the mean and the median. The number of companies included in the analysis is 8 as this includes some companies producing more than one product type (hence the number is not the sum of the companies across the human food, bioactives, animal feed and horticulture product types)

23. Extrapolated based on 25% GVA from turnover for small-scale, 20% GVA from turnover for medium-scale and 10% from turnover for large-scale companies.

24. Social licence is an industry-coined term relating to the relationship between industries and local communities in circumstances where the activities have social and environmental costs. It is described as an on-going relationship between a host community and an organisation (industry, Non-governmental organisation (NGO), business) where the organisation is held to certain standards set by the community, in exchange for acceptance by the community (Stanley et al. 2019 and references therein).

25. Scottish Seaweed Cooperative: White Paper, 23 July 2020 (In press). Supplied by the International Blue Cooperative, 31 July 2020

26. In general, all types of aquaculture (i.e. finfish, shellfish and seaweed aquaculture) may be affected by disease and/or pests. Stanley et al. (2019 and references therein) describe how the issue of disease and pests is intensified for cultivated seaweed by a reduction in genetic diversity associated with the domestication of wild seaweed species making crops more susceptible to abiotic stressors, diseases and parasites, potentially resulting in large reductions in yields. Furthermore, farmed seaweed may also act a reservoir for disease which could impact natural populations.

27. For the purposes of this study, the potential for growth and development of the Scottish industry has been considered within the current legislative and regulatory framework for seaweed wild harvesting and cultivation (described in Appendix A)

28. Note due to the small number of businesses identified involved in the production of animal feed and horticultural products, the projections for these two product groups are not shown separately. Instead they are a component of the aggregated projected growth turnover, GVA and employment in each graph.

29. Collingwood Environmental Planning Ltd et al. 2016. A two way conversation with the people of Scotland on the social impact of offshore renewables, Final Dialogue Report; as reported by Marine Scotland (2018): Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy (encompassing Deep Water Plan Options) Social and Economic Impact Assessment Scoping Report.

30. Most research has been conducted in Asia (Gegg and Wells, 2019) where positive social impacts of cultivating this feedstock [raw material] have been noted, such as social equality through female employment and, because of increasing incomes, greater community cohesion and participation in leisure activities (Troell et al., 2006; Roesijadi et al., 2010; Hurtado, 2013; Kronen, 2013, all cited in Gegg and Wells (2019)). However, research has yet to focus on the societal impacts in the UK (Gegg and Wells (2019),

31. This is based on an illustrative estimation of Scottish GVA in 2040, based on current GVA projected into the future with an annual growth rate of 1.1%. See Table 6, Appendix F for data, assumptions and sources.

32. This is based on an illustrative estimation of Scottish GVA in 2040, based on current GVA projected into the future with an annual growth rate of 1.1%. See Table 6, Appendix F for data,, assumptions and sources

33. Office of National Statistics (2019) Regional gross value added (balanced) by industry. Table 1c: NUTS1 % UK current prices. Accessed at Regional gross value added (balanced) by industry: all NUTS level regions - Office for National Statistics

34. This is based on an illustrative estimation of unemployment in 2040. It is based on population projections whilst assuming the unemployment rate remains at 4.1% (2019 level). See Table F6 for data, assumptions and sources.

35. This is based on an illustrative estimation of unemployment in 2040. It is based on population projections whilst assuming the unemployment rate remains at 4.1% (2019 level). See Table F6 for data, assumptions and sources

36. Type 1 impacts represent impacts directly from the seaweed industry and its supply chain and type 2 impacts represent impacts from induced spending. GVA impacts are the estimated percentage increase in the communities GVA. Unemployment impacts represent the estimated percentage change to the number of people unemployed.

37. This is consistent with wider stakeholder opinion expressed during the consultation regarding the importance of the current wild harvesting sector with regard to employment in remote coastal locations.

38. Burrows et al (2018) predicted a total biomass of 20 Mt for L. hyperborea, 2.5 Mt for Saccharina latissima, 188000t (0.19Mt) for Saccorhiza polyschides and 161000t (0.16Mt) for Laminaria digitata around the Scottish coast. It should be noted that no estimate of biomass for Ascophyllum nodosum (the species wild harvested in the largest quantities in Scotland) were made.

39. Data sourced from the Marine Scotland Marine Licence Application website: https://marine.gov.scot/marine-licence-applications [accessed 21.07.2021].

40. Based on eight companies for which data was available; hence likely to be an underestimate due to data gaps and not all companies identified and/or engaging with the project.

41. Where the foreshore is owned by a landowner other than the Crown, the landowners permission is required

42. L. hyperborea, L. digitata, S. latissima, Saccorhiza polyschides, and A. esculenta

43. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this method may sometimes unintentionally pull up holdfasts or substrate – which could potentially be considered as "the removal of a substance or object from the seabed".

44. SIF project summary for Halogenated Compounds in Seaweeds.

45. The term production in FAO statistics refers to the volume of aquatic plants harvested from the wild (also referred to as capture) and seaweed cultivated in marine, brackish and freshwater environments. The term is not specific to seaweed, although seaweed does constitute the majority of production.

46. Such contacts were determined through the desk-based review above and liaison with the Project Steering Group (PSG) and the Scottish Seaweed Industry Association (SSIA)

47. Norwegian Seaweed Biorefinery Platform website.

48. The type and species of aquatic plant was not identified in Cefas (2016). As they are not included under brown, red or green seaweeds, it is assumed that this does not refer to the production of seaweed (macroalgae).

49. Information from the stakeholder consultation indicated that cultivated seaweed could command a higher price compared to wild harvested seaweed due to a 'higher quality' product.

50. Previously half of dried A. nodosum production was exported to Scotland for alginate production, but alginate in Scotland has now ceased.

51. Shropshire Seaweed website.

52. The report noted that statistics on macroalgae biomass production (from the FAO and Eurostat) are incomplete and the dataset will be updated with new information as it becomes available.

53. EU Seaweed Strategy, 11 June 2020; presentations available online.

54. Post-processing of by-products

55. A company or organisation's core business was considered to relate to seaweed if over 50% of their business or products related to seaweed/seaweed products (confirmed through consultation or judged from publicly available information).

56. Where products containing seaweed comprise the majority of the products produced or sold.

57. Note, three businesses identified at a relatively late stage in the process, for example during consultation, were not contacted directly. Hence information on those businesses was obtained through publicly available information.

58. Although unable to provide company or organisation names under GDPR, the SSIA indicated that it had sent the invitation to engage with the study to 27 SSIA members, although they noted that not all members are active commercial entities (SSIA pers. comm.; 14 April 2020).

59. Under GDPR the SSIA were not able to provide a list of members, hence where the project team thought that a business may not be a member, for example if a micro-business, these companies were approached directly by the project team via email.

60. Harvesting seaweed from the foreshore or seabed (i.e. below mean low water springs) managed by Crown Estate Scotland (CES), for commercial reward, requires a licence to be obtained from CES (hereafter referred to as the CES seaweed harvesting licence). Where the foreshore is owned by a landowner other than the Crown, the landowners permission is required.

61. Data supplied by Marine Scotland Licensing Operations team on 26.04.21 showed that there are now nine licensed seaweed farming sites and another six marine licence applications of seaweed farms being processed. However, it is not known how many of these farms are currently operational.

62. Based on reported and estimated turnover from 6 companies (estimated turnover includes where product value and tonnage was given). The two companies that did not provide turnover data (or had no turnover in the case of the start-up) are not counted in the mean value.

63. Based on reported or estimated profits from 4 companies (estimated profits per product category are based on an assumed turnover by product category, with profit then taken as the same percentage as for the overall company information).

64. Based on reported and estimated turnover from 4 companies. No additional information product value or tonnage was provided so turnover for the remaining companies cannot be estimated.

65. Based on reported or estimated profits from 3 companies (approach to estimated profits as for human food)

66. Based on reported (and estimated) data for 8 companies (note this excludes start-ups). Turnover ranges from less than £10,000 per year to more than £1 million per year, hence the large difference between the mean and the median. The number of companies included in the analysis is 8 as this includes some companies producing more than one product type (hence the number is not the sum of the companies across the human food, bioactives, animal feed and horticulture product types)

67. Extrapolated based on 25% GVA from turnover for small-scale, 20% GVA from turnover for medium-scale and 10% from turnover for large-scale companies.

68. Projected turnover reduced by 3%, based on latest 2017 figures in the Scottish Government Input-Output Tables 1998 – 2017, published September 2020.

69. Based on 29,500 tonnes harvested per year based on FAO (2018; 2019), Cefas (2019) and Norton et al. (2014 estimating a value of seaweed production output in Ireland at 4 million euros per year).

70. Based on exchange rates of Euro to Pound Sterling of 1€ = £0.89 on 12/11/2020.

71. Whilst the multipliers have been adjusted for primary inputs, the adjustment factor for other sectoral linkages has not been applied because it is already captured through the cultivation sector (as explained above).