Seaweed company on crest of a wave

It was an Italian woman’s love affair with Irish seaweed that prompted the creation of a small company that is to start exporting products to Japan.

“Irish seaweed is the most amazing resource. The West Coast of Ireland is the only unpolluted coast in the world, which means the seaweed here is clean and in demand worldwide,” says Rosaria Piseri, who abandoned her life in Milan 12 years ago to come and research seaweed on the Aran Islands.

Now she runs a small organic company in Donegal, Algaran Teo, which sells sea veg and seaweed-based food products and cosmetics, mainly to Italy, but also to distributors in France, Scandinavia, Belgium, Russia and Ireland.

Based at a converted house in the seaside village of Kilcar, the company employs three full-time staff — including Ms Piseri and two part time workers. Following a visit to Japan in March this year, Algaran will begin shipping out two pallets of food and cosmetic products next week. A larger container will follow later in the year and Ms Piseri will return to Tokyo in November to attend an exhibition.

“We will be the first exporter of organic seaweed to Japan. The interest in Irish seaweed there is high, because of the lack of pollution and because it doesn’t contain heavy metals,” says Ms Piseri who expects that the opening up of a new market in Japan could allow her to double sales next year.

In a previous life in Milan, Ms Piseri ran a company which imported Irish seaweed extract and sold it to farmers. When the supply ran out, she decided to come directly to the source and settled on Inish Mór because it had 400 floral species of seaweed.

“I sold paintings to tourists, I cooked, I translated and I researched seaweed. The first product I developed was one which is used to treat herpes,” reveals Ms Piseri.

Looking for ways to fund a new venture, she found employment for a year at Kilcar, setting up a new seaweed processing plant for another company. When her contract ran out, she was about to return to Inish Mór when local seaweed harvester Micheal McCloskey asked her to join him in starting a new company.

With some support from Údarás na Gaeltachta and Donegal Enterprise Board, they took out a loan and turned a ruined cottage into a lab. Algaran started off by harvesting and drying sea veg, selling to a distributor in Italy, while also working on developing some new value-added products, including soaps and skin products.

In 2008, Algaran became the first seaweed company in Europe to be certified organic and in 2010 it signed a new agreement with the Italian distributor which now sells sea veg and food products to 450 stores in Italy.

In 2012, Algaran took part in an Intertrade Ireland Fusion Programme, which secured the services of a food technology graduate for a year. “We developed several new products, including hazelnuts with Carrigeen moss, Dukkah — a condiment with oak-smoked seaweed — and a seaweed powder mix, which is a healthy alternative to salt. We now have six food products and a line of 10 species of sea veg,” says Ms Piseri, explaining that sea veg and food accounts for 70% of sales.

The launch of a website in 2009 allowed the company to develop sales to a number of distributors in Europe, who first bought online, but contacted the company for further orders. Sales to health food shops around Ireland accounts for around 5% of revenue.

“Turnover in 2012 was €150,000 and for 2013 it’s heading close to €180,000. We hope that selling to Japan can double sales next year,” says Ms Piseri, who expects Japan to overtake Italy as her main market within a few years.

To increase production, the company is looking at the possibility of raising funding to buy drying machinery for the plant. Employing two additional staff members — one for drying and one for harvesting — is also on the cards. Future plans are to focus on both developing and selling value-added products.

This year, Ms Piseri has been chosen as a case study speaker at the National Women’s Enterprise Day in October. She regards this as both an honour and an opportunity. She doesn’t have the time or resources for advertising, but believes this will raise the company profile and may even help attract an investor.