Royal Greenland is investing heavily in seaweed cultivation. After several years of experiments, Royal Greenland is ready to grow seaweed commercially.
Investment has already gone into a seaweed plant at Maniitsoq, but this is just the beginning as the company aims to increase production significantly.
‘Here in Greenland, we have a unique opportunity to grow seaweed of very high quality, and we are now taking advantage of this. We of course hope for a good harvest, which we can both process ourselves and sell to customers abroad,’ said production director Lars Nielsen.
‘We see great potential in Greenlandic seaweed cultivation. That is why we are making this investment. We hope that in the future we will have a production that is many times greater than the 32 tonnes we expect to harvest.’
The seaweed plant is at Maniitsog has a Norwegian-developed system from Arctic Seaweed, which makes it possible to grow seaweed on 16 kilometres of rope in a relatively limited space measuring is only 150 by 50 metres.
The day-to-day running of Royal Greenland’s seaweed production is managed by biologist Nikoline Ziemer, who initiated the project.
‘It is fantastic that we can grow seaweed for commercial use. It is another good opportunity to develop local production and create a better economy both for Royal Greenland and for Greenland,’ she said.
The seaweed facility was set up in August and is located 3.5 nautical miles east of Maniitsoq, at Inuttooq.
Sugar seaweed and wing seaweed are grown, which can be used for seaweed salad and seaweed pesto, among other things.
