Seaweed is a key raw material for a broad spread of industries, from agriculture and food to health supplements and the beauty industry. <\/p>\n
There is no shortage of demand, but there is a shortage of supply, as the seaweed farming sector hasn\u2019t yet reached a point where it can compete commercially with other inputs. <\/p>\n
\u201cFrom looking at how seaweed farming is developing internationally, one thing became very clear: the demand is there, but the economics don\u2019t work at scale at the moment,\u201d says Gareth Murphy. <\/p>\n
Murphy has co-founded a regenerative ocean farming company, \u00d3ir Na Farraige, with engineer and entrepreneur Sam Roch-Perks, to address the problem. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the biggest challenges facing the seaweed industry is a \u2018chicken and egg\u2019 problem,\u201d Murphy says. \u201cProducers can\u2019t reach scale without demand, and industry won\u2019t commit until there\u2019s a clear, reliable supply at the right price. Our aim is to produce sustainably at scale using innovative farming models that can significantly reduce production costs.<\/p>\n
[\u00a0\u2018Corporate takeover of livelihoods\u2019: The seaweed-harvesting battle on Ireland\u2019s west coastOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n \u201cIreland has some of the best natural conditions in the world and deep expertise in producing high-quality food, yet there\u2019s still a kind of \u2018sea blindness\u2019 when it comes to fully embracing the marine opportunity,\u201d Murphy says. <\/p>\n \u201cThat was the turning point for me. Instead of talking about the potential, I wanted to build something that could actually deliver it.\u201d<\/p>\n Murphy has spent time exploring emerging technologies and farming methods that could bring production costs down to a viable level, and \u00d3ir Na Farraige is building its infrastructure based on Norwegian technologies, with local fabrication. <\/p>\n \u201cAt the moment, seaweed has a long life cycle with various stages before it goes to sea. The new technology we\u2019re using allows us to \u2018direct seed\u2019 \u2013 applying the seaweed culture directly to the ropes, as opposed to growing it on twine in a hatchery and tying the twine to ropes at sea. This allows us to skip an entire stage in the growth process and reduce the cost of production. <\/p>\n \u201cThe second innovation is the use of a more condensed system that allows us to produce more seaweed per hectare than traditional methods, and thirdly, we\u2019re using a novel grid system for growing the seaweed, instead of individual moorings. This allows us to operate in more hostile and robust conditions while offering better security for our lines.\u201d <\/p>\n \u00d3ir Na Farraige is a spin-out from Irish renewable energy company Simply Blue Group, which was also co-founded by Sam Roch-Perks. Murphy joined Simply Blue as seaweed project manager in 2023. <\/p>\n