Mr. Jean-Paul Deveau:

I am the chairman of the board of Arramara Teoranta and the president of Acadian Seaplants Limited. While the topic of this meeting is the licensing and harvesting of seaweed in Ireland, my comments apply to just two species of seaweed - ascophyllum and fucus. Other seaweed species will require their own different licensing and managing processes.

I am here today to speak in support of the licensing of the seaweed resource of the ascophyllum and fucus species. I will list the important factors that should be taken into consideration when decisions on licensing are being made. I will speak about the reasons Arramara has applied for a licence. I will also provide examples of what can happen in both a regulated and an unregulated commercial seaweed harvesting environment. We believe seaweed licensing is important to ensure the resource is managed in a responsible and scientific way. We believe it is needed to ensure harvesting practices are sustainable and the habitat is protected from an environmental perspective. Seaweed licensing is important if we are to maximise the economic benefit of the seaweed resource to Ireland and ensure it is used to make value-added products, create economic benefits for harvesters and generate economic benefits in harvesting communities.

I would like to run through the factors that we believe should be taken into account when licensing is being considered. Licences should be granted to cover a specific geographic area on an exclusive basis. Exclusive licences are needed to avoid competitive commercial harvesting in the same geographic area. Having said that, individuals should be permitted to harvest seaweed for their own personal use as long as it is not for resale. Unregulated competitive commercial harvesting leads to the over-harvesting of the resource, which consequently leads to the loss of harvester jobs and the closure of manufacturing facilities and habitat degradation. The licenceholder must be held accountable for the economic benefit to Ireland, including to the harvesters, and for the sustainability of the resource.

Arramara Teoranta has applied for a licence to ensure it has an ongoing source of seaweed for its business. I want to emphasise that we are aiming to ensure all the harvesters will have an opportunity to continue to harvest seaweed on an ongoing basis. We want to ensure continued employment and make a contribution to the coastal communities of the west. Arramara has applied for a licence in the areas where Arramara has traditionally obtained seaweed. It has been processing seaweed for more than 67 years, since 1947. Over 300 harvesters have supplied Arramara with seaweed in recent times. We want to ensure each of those harvesters can continue to have the opportunity to supply seaweed to Arramara now and into the future.

I will provide examples of what can happen in a both regulated and an unregulated environment. The submission we have furnished to the joint committee contains a chronology from Acadian Seaplants showing that each time a licence was secured, investment followed.

We have established an industry that started in Canada that is growing and is sustainable. We have five world-class processing facilities in rural communities, 25 researchers, including nine who hold PhDs, 45 sales and marketing people located in seven countries, namely, Canada, the US, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Japan, and we have more than 250 employees in Canada. In June, we opened a new, 115,000 sq. ft. value-added, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. This happened because licensing provided assured access to seaweed, allowing investment and proper management of the resource to take place.

Global demand for seaweed is growing dramatically, and we have heard some examples of it here today. As a consequence, the potential for over exploitation will increase over time, without proper management. For example, in September 2013, Chile shut down the harvesting of brown seaweed due to over harvesting in an unregulated environment. This resulted in the loss of harvester jobs and manufacturing plant closures. In a regulated, licensed environment, Acadian Seaplants has been able to build a sustainable seaweed industry in Canada, ensure the scientific management and sustainability of the resource and habitat and create value-added products in a rural environment for use domestically and exported to more than 80 countries around the world. An unlicensed commercial competitive environment will result in over harvesting, loss of harvester jobs and industry shut-down. Together, the partnership between Arramara and Acadian Seaplants in a licensed environment will result in an Irish success story featuring an Irish company, resource and people. A licence for Arramara will provide assured access to the resource for the 300 plus harvesters who supply Arramara Teoranta.