It’s a bleak Thursday morning in mid-January when I set out west on a pilgrimage to the UK’s smallest city of St Davids, but as I reach the Pembrokeshire coastline the winter sun appears highlighting the brilliant scenic views.
World famous for its beaches, cliffs, islands and wildlife, the south-west coast has also seen a hive of commercial and economic development of late.
In November last year, a Pembroke Dock Marine initiative started the first phase of its £60m project to create renewable energy and an engineering centre creating 1,800 new jobs, while only last month, plans for a £1bn floating off-shore wind farm off the West Wales coast were announced by Pembroke Dock-based, Hiraeth Energy.
My destination is a smallholding called Clegyr Uchaf on the outskirts of St Davids to meet the people behind business venture, Câr-y-Môr.
Câr-y-Môr - which means “for the love of the sea” in Welsh - aims to become Wales’ first commercial seaweed and shellfish farm.
But it’s a Pembrokeshire commercial venture with a difference.
On paper, Câr-y-Môr’s goal is to improve the coastal environment and the community of St Davids by creating a commercially viable yet sustainable seaweed farm, in turn creating jobs and giving local young people a route into the Welsh seafood sector.
In practice, Câr-y-Môr is a story of local people taking affirmative action to create employment and prospects in their community through enterprise and entrepreneurship.
It was the brainchild of fisherman Owen Haines in 2017, after Jonathan Williams of Pembrokeshire Beach Foods Co. voiced concerns about the unsustainability of wild harvesting seaweed in Wales and convinced him to start farming it commercially.
A second-generation fish farmer, Owen, 60, has worked on several commercial shellfish farms from Poole to Oban. From 2014 to 2018 he helped save Somerset-based Torre Trout Farms from liquidation turning it into a profitable, employee-owned business.
Today, he works part-time as South Wales Seafood Cluster manager with Menter a Busnes helping to develop the Welsh seafood sector alongside volunteering for Câr-y-Môr.
Despite a commercial fishing background, it was a case of heart over head for Owen when he decided to launch Câr-y-Môr as a sustainable seaweed farm.
“We’re beginning to see the effects of climate change now and yet we in the West carry on like normal,” says Owen, as we chat over a scrubbed wooden kitchen table at Câr-y-Môr’s base. “I’ve got grandkids now and I think at some point I’m going to have a stroppy teenager say to me, ‘What did you do? Didn’t you realise what was happening?’”
Following Jonathan’s request, Owen began researching sustainable seaweed farming and discovered GreenWave.
Started by a disillusioned fisherman in North America called Bren Smith, GreenWave is a not-for-profit organisation focused on developing regenerative ocean farming. It uses a polyculture farming system where a mixture of seaweeds and shellfish are grown without fresh water, fertiliser or feed while capturing and storing carbon.
After getting in touch with GreenWave for advice and support, Owen decided to see if he could replicate the model on the Pembrokeshire coastline.
He proposed the idea to the National Trust, the Milford Haven Port Authority, the Welsh Government’s Fisheries Office, the Crown Estates and National Resources Wales to mixed reception, but was eventually invited onto the Welsh Government’s Business Wales Accelerated Growth Programme.
After three years of business planning, applications and lobbying, in August 2020 the farm obtained all the necessary consents for two community-run trial seaweed farms at Ramsey Sound at St Davids Peninsula between Ramsey Island and the mainland.
Despite its eco-credentials and community-interest focus, Câr-y-Môr’s business model is different from a typical social enterprise.
Câr-y-Môr is a Community Benefit Society (CBS), a business owned and democratically-run by its members solely for the benefit of its community.
“All profits we generate are not distributed among members or external shareholders but are ploughed back into the local community,” stakeholder engagement officer, Dan Lewis, tells me.
“If for some reason Câr-y-Môr was to cease to exist, all the assets would have to be sold and the money given to another community group. There’s no one person in the group who’s going to make money out of this, it’s all equal,” he adds.
The farm currently relies on over 120 volunteer members to help in this set-up stage. It holds two volunteering days a month where volunteers can help with everything from admin work in the office, harvest and grading the seaweed and shellfish at the trial farms through to processing and packing it.
While not part of the long-term goal of creating local employment, Dan points out that volunteering gives young people in the area the chance to gain experience and skills in the seafood sector while learning a new trade.
“There are many different avenues here for them to come and learn about,” he says. “In terms of college subjects, there’s business studies, accounting, food technology, food processing, marine biology and sciences.”
Aside from its volunteer members, Câr-y-Môr also has 90 pioneer shareholders — members who have vested financially in the CBS through its Pioneer Share Offer.
Opened in December 2020, the share offer enables people to invest between £1000 and £10,000. It has raised £94,000 so far, but still has further to go to reach its £150,000 target.
A board of nine directors, including Owen, make the major financial decisions but in other decisions for Câr-y-Môr the shareholders get an equal say - no matter how much they’ve invested, says Dan.
“Investing £1,000 doesn’t mean you get 1,000 votes. Each shareholder gets one vote in the say of how the business is run, including organisations who have invested. It brings in people who are like-minded and just want the business to succeed rather than get a financial gain,” he says.
The two trial farms are currently growing sugar kelp, scallops and oysters while being monitored for their biodiversity and carbon capture. The 300m of seaweed lines grow four species of seaweed and 90,000 native oysters as well as scallops and mussels seed, replicating the 3D ocean farming model: vertical underwater gardens that can regenerate marine ecosystems.
The trial farms are monitored to record carbon capture and growth rates and Owen suggests roughly 0.5 tonnes of carbon is captured at the trial farms per year — not taking into account natural settlement on the structures or the carbon locked up in the shellfish shells.
In terms of production capacity, he estimates 15 tonnes of seaweed was produced at the trial farms while standing stock of shellfish increased by 2.5 tonnes.
It’s going to take a few years to build up that standing stock, says Owen.
“An oyster farm in Scotland for instance would have £22m standing stock in the water to be able to have a viable business, but in the first few years you’ve got to build that up. It’s like trying to get into any kind of farming, it takes years of investment,” he says.
Câr-y-Môr now wants to scale up seaweed and shellfish production. It has applied for a full marine licence with Natural Resources Wales (NWR) for a three-hectare farm (a size it deems as a commercial scale ocean farm) which if approved will be created near St Justinians, in Ramsey Sound.
The marine licence application looks likely to be approved, says Owen, and the farm has just received approval for an European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) £300,000 grant. This will fund the development of the three-hectare farm but a bridging loan is needed to allow them to take up the grant which can only be claimed after the money has been spent.
Following those steps and the development of the new farm, seaweed production can begin growing within four months compared to shellfish that takes years to reach market size.
He estimates that in three years annual seaweed production will reach 50 tonnes offering an average sale at £4,000 price per tonne. As such the farm would need to reach an annual turnover of around £400,000 to achieve its commercially viable status.
Environmentally, it would capture around 30 tonnes of carbon a year but the length of time the carbon remains captured depends on the use, if food or fertiliser is used then it won’t be for long. There is an on-going debate around this, says Owen, and the science still needs to be clarified.
While laverbread has always been a staple in diets in Wales, Welsh seaweed has become en-vogue with food producers as many have started putting it in various products such as gin, cheese, oil and even salami.
But the foraging and wild harvesting of seaweed on the Welsh coast has now become unsustainable as demand for it has increased.
With a clear commercial roadmap and strong sustainable credentials, Câr-y-Môr could be poised to lead the way on commercialising Welsh seaweed farming to a wider market.
It has plans to work with wholesalers when production is up and running to supply its seaweed to the UK hospitality market, and Owen acknowledges the export potential of the products to Europe but expands that to non-food items like clothing buttons or compostable flower pots which one Dutch member is working on.
There is also a major commercial gap in the market for farmed seaweed and, with the right branding, Pembrokeshire could be the home of Welsh seaweed in the same way Halen Mon is the home of Anglesey sea salt or Scotland is to Scottish smoked salmon.
“Scotland has had brilliant branding for years, they have the Association of Scottish Shellfish Grower, the Scottish Seaweed Industry Association, the Whisky Industry,” says Owen.
But Câr-y-Môr aren’t the only ones looking at the potential commercialisation of Welsh seaweed.
Since starting the venture, several other more commercialised businesses have begun sending applications to NRW for their own marine licences for seaweed farms with one licence already approved for Camarthen Bay. Câr-y-Môr’s is the only application to develop a seaweed farm based on regenerative ocean farming.
In the meantime, the CBS is still dependent on grants and pioneer shareholders to reach its commercial scale goal, with Owen estimating £600,000 in additional funding needed to develop several aspects of the business at the same time.
If Câr-y-Môr is to become the first commercial seafood and seaweed farm it has to overcome some wider challenges, including getting people to understand what a Community Benefit Society is.
“It’s quite a difficult model to understand,” says Dan. “A lot of people say to us, ‘there must be someone who owns this, who’s going to benefit?’. It proved in the beginning quite difficult to find people with that mindset who were able to understand it.”
Engagement is key to reassuring those unconvinced which is why Dan was brought on board as stakeholder engagement officer to get the word out about Câr-y-Môr.
Dan is one of three full-time employees the farm has taken on, whose role is funded by the WWF.
Indeed, Câr-y-Môr has already started engaging with the wider community of St Davids, working with local schools to deliver outdoor educational events and has started supplying its seaweed products to the shops in the city.
During my visit to St Davids, I noticed Câr-y-Môr’s branding on its dried dulse, dried laver and sea spaghetti on 20g retail packs at the local delicatessen.
As the commercial venture grows the business aims to do more within St Davids itself with plans to open a Seafood House offering several facilities while enjoying the city’s footfall and creating more jobs.
It would feature a cafe, bistro and shop offering its seafood as well as an education centre and purification, processing and packaging facilities.
The farms will then work alongside the Seafood House, retailing and wholesaling the produce.
Unfortunately, Owen tells me the opening of the Seafood House has been set back by a year due to PCNPA planning delays attributed to COVID.
“That part of our commercial roadmap has slowed down which is bad news for us because that was going to be the real money-making side of the business when up and running,” he says.
“This also has a knock on effect because people don’t hear about us and our unique business model and so don’t support us by buying our products or investing in the pioneer scheme.”
As part of its commercial roadmap, Câr-y-Môr acquired well-known Pembrokeshire seafood brand Solva Seafoods in January last year with the purpose of having a reputable commercial arm with an existing loyal customer (former owner and fisherman, Jonathan Voyce, now works as a volunteer for Câr-y-Môr).
The acquisition has brought in steady revenue during this initial start-up phase through dressed crab and lobster sales, although plans are being made to eventually merge the two businesses together to avoid confusion.
Câr-y-Môr also bought the brand as a way to become more familiar with the local fishing industry in the area, an important factor when applying to NRW for a marine licence.
“In order to start a seaweed and shellfish farm in Wales, we need fishermen to be part of it because they’ve got the skills and knowledge of how the tide works,” says Owen.
Unfortunately, fishermen are very difficult to engage with and the only way to do so is to buy from them as Dan and Owen have discovered.
“You build that relationship and pay your bills,” says Owen, “and after a few months they’ll then start talking to you and let you explain to them what a CBS is.”
During the application process, NRW look for any objections to the marine licence so support from the local fishing industry is hugely important. But Owen worries too many seaweed farm applications along the Welsh coast will draw more resistance from the fishing industry as a whole.
“If other companies get licences they could end up putting their gear out on the water over a fisherman’s favourite fishing spot or filling the coastline with ropes and buoys and then the whole fishing industry is against you and seaweed farmers are seen as polluting the seas,” says Owen.
“To me it’s absolutely essential that fishermen are with us and that’s another reason why the seaweed should be a community business.”
