Galway startup targets lower-cost seaweed farming for agriculture and food markets
Irish startup Óir Na Farraige is developing a lower-cost seaweed farming model to make marine biomass competitive for agriculture, food and other industrial uses.
Irish startup Óir Na Farraige is trying to solve a core problem in the seaweed sector: demand exists across agriculture, food, health supplements and beauty products, but production economics have not yet allowed the industry to scale competitively. The Irish Times reported that co-founder Gareth Murphy sees a clear market opportunity, provided growers can supply reliable volumes at a price that established industries are willing to pay.
Murphy and engineer-entrepreneur Sam Roch-Perks founded the Galway-based company to build what they describe as a regenerative ocean farming business. Murphy said the industry is stuck in a classic chicken-and-egg problem: producers cannot reach scale without demand, while industrial buyers hesitate until they see dependable supply at the right price. That is why Óir Na Farraige is focusing not only on cultivation, but on a production model designed specifically to lower costs.
The company says it is using several technical changes to do that. One is direct seeding, which applies seaweed culture directly to ropes instead of growing it first on twine in a hatchery and then attaching the twine to ropes at sea. Murphy said this removes an entire stage from the growth process and cuts production cost. A second change is a denser system intended to produce more seaweed per hectare. A third is a grid-based growing system instead of individual moorings, which the founders say should improve security and allow operations in more hostile marine conditions.
Óir Na Farraige was spun out of Irish renewable-energy company Simply Blue Group, which was also co-founded by Roch-Perks. Murphy joined Simply Blue in 2023 as seaweed project manager and became involved in work exploring how aquaculture could be integrated with offshore wind developments. He cited projects such as North Sea Farm 1, described in the article as the world’s first commercially funded seaweed farm within an active offshore wind farm, as part of the experience that led to the spin-out.
The company currently employs three people in Galway, but Murphy said it operates with a much wider effective team through board involvement, EU projects and technical partnerships. Its environmental monitoring systems are being developed with Trinity College Dublin and the University of Galway. The startup has secured about €2.75 million so far through grants and private investment, including backing from EIT Foods and EMFAF, which Murphy said gives it funding runway through the end of 2028. The company expects to launch its first product by May 2027.
For agriculture, one of the most relevant points in the story is where the company sees commercial competition. Murphy said that in crop nutrition, seaweed-based products ultimately have to compete with established fertilisers. He argued that rising fuel costs and growing concerns around fertiliser supply and pricing create an opening for more sustainable and locally produced alternatives. If Óir Na Farraige can prove a viable cost-and-volume model, the business could become more than a marine farming startup and emerge as a new supplier into agricultural input chains.