Stefan Kraan
GOLDHAWK WAS surprised to see that a liquidator (Flavien Kelly) has just been appointed to The Seaweed Company Blue Turtle Ltd, the Irish subsidiary of a giant Dutch firm operating in the investment-friendly world of seaweed cultivation, having developed a 50-acre sea farm off the Galway coast.
The parent, registered in Schiedam in the Netherlands, is The Seaweed Company BV (TSC) and, according to the company’s own PR waffle, “seaweed is one of the fastest growing biomass substances in the world, flourishing without using land, fresh water or fertiliser”.
The “mission” adopted by TSC is “to safeguard a liveable future for ourselves, our children and generations to come”.
Given that seaweed is apparently “a unique untapped resource with many valuable applications, from food to fuel and even pharmaceuticals”, it is not clear what went wrong for the Irish company, which was set up to grow and harvest seaweed in the west.
TSC claims to combine “unique biological and technological expertise” to grow and process seaweed “at commercial scale from our open water facilities in Ireland”.
The Dutch parent also has subsidiaries operating in Morocco, India and a small (three-acre) farm back in the Netherlands. It has developed the brands TopHealth (animal feed) and SeaMeat (for human consumption).
As recently as last month, the Financial Times reported on growing investor interest in seaweed farming, noting its green credentials made the sector particularly attractive and had pushed it up the agenda in the European Commission, where there has been a call for increased production and the streamlining of regulation. TSC chief executive Joost Wouters told the FT that he considered himself a “seaweed pioneer”.
In Ireland, Galway-based Dutch native Stefan Krann and his wife, Yvonne Van Etten, had founded Oceana Organic Products back in 2004, with Stefan controlling 85% of the shares here. In 2019, this company acquired a significant stake in TSC and Krann became the man on the ground here for the Dutch operation, with Oceana Organics providing management and administration services to both the local operation and its Dutch parent.
The Seaweed Company Blue Turtle was incorporated here at the end of 2018 but the waters have clearly been choppy. According to the last accounts filed, the business was sitting on accumulated losses of over €¾m at the end of 2021.
These figures, signed off in September last year, had turned out to be even worse than expected as a result of an error in calculating the expenses paid by TSC on behalf of its Irish subsidiary. This caused retained losses to jump by €180,000.
Despite a capital injection by the shareholders in the Dutch parent early last year, a decision has now been made to liquidate the Irish ‘Blue Turtle’ company as a result of the scale of liabilities built up.
The good news is that another Irish subsidiary, The Seaweed Company Green Turtle Ltd, remains intact, although accumulated losses here topped €430,000 at the end of 2021, with its status as a going concern “dependent on continued financial support from the company’s parent”.
