Future looks good for €5m seaweed industry

SEAWEED has the potential to give a healthy makeover worth €5 million to the Irish skincare products industry, a conference in Limerick heard yesterday.

The seaweed skincare industry here represents only a small slice of the multi-billion euro international market which is seeking new raw materials that are natural and sustainable.

The conference, organised by Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), was told Ireland is perfectly poised to seize upon this opportunity with 520 species of seaweed around its shores.

Donal Maguire, BIM’s aquaculture development manager, said an exciting opportunity exists now for Ireland’s seaweed sector to gain a share of this market.

He said Ireland’s image is of a green country, surrounded by pure unpolluted seas.

There have also been recent discoveries about unique anti-ageing and firming properties of the seaweed species growing around our coasts.

“This all places our producers in pole position to take a high value niche in this rapidly-expanding sector of the cosmetics industry,” he said.

Mr Maguire said there is an exciting window of opportunity for Ireland’s seaweed companies to get their products onto the shelves and into the bathrooms of health and appearance-conscious consumers.

Dr Anne Menguy, an expert from France, the world leader in the use of seaweed for skincare products, said there is significant potential for expansion of the Irish industry.

Leading domestic and international figures from the cosmetics and marketing industries addressed seaweed producers at the conference, which focused on future development of skincare applications using Ireland’s seaweed resource.