Irish seaweed industry: conclusions and future

The failure rates experienced in the Irish seaweed industry are becoming a thing of the past as the industry is now more streamlined and better managed than ever before. There will be increasing problems with the demography of harvesters and mechanisation will be necessary. Difficulties with high fuel costs for drying will increase as energy becomes more expensive, but this will be a overall problem for which a general solution will be found. Demand for certain seaweed products does fluctuate but this can be got around by more diversification within the individual companies: a single-product company is vulnerable in any sphere. The perceived lack of research and development is being tackled by the Marine Institute and Bord Iascaigh Mhara, both of whom have funded basic and applied seaweed research projects, and by several of the companies.

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