Cefetra Group partners with seaweed specialist to offer green biostimulant to boost yields
Cefetra Group Ltd is partnering with a seaweed specialist based on the Isle of Skye to offer farmers biostimulants which improve resilience to environmental stress and boost yields.
Cefetra, a global supplier of agricultural and food ingredients, is working with KelpCrofters, which sustainably farms, harvests and processes kelp, a large brown seaweed, to showcase their non-microbial plant biostimulants.
To develop more sustainable supply chains, Cefetra is marketing and distributing KelpCrofters’ biostimulants to farmers to offer products that are UK-made, fully traceable and produced with minimal environmental impact.
With the Iran War impacting the supply and price of agricultural inputs, Cefetra says the partnership is a timely chance to introduce products which are made and sourced locally.
Tom Oates, Cefetra Technical Inputs Manager, said: “Cefetra is pleased to offer KelpCrofters seaweed biostimulants as they offer a practical, eco-friendly tool for modern agriculture. By improving plant growth, increasing stress tolerance and supporting soil health, they enable farmers to achieve more productive and sustainable farming systems.
“Farmers are under pressure to produce higher yields while reducing environmental impact so seaweed-based biostimulants offer a natural and sustainable way to enhance performance. The complex array of compounds naturally found in seaweed can ‘trigger’ plants to perform better in poor growing conditions and can help plants cope with stress, such as drought, salinity, and temperature fluctuations which can significantly reduce crop productivity.
“KelpCrofters biostimulants help farmers apply ‘liquid resilience’ to crops and improve yields, mitigating the challenges posed by unpredictable weather patterns, while supporting beneficial microbial activity, improving soil structure and enhancing water retention. With the growing demand for sustainable farming, they can help meet regulatory and market expectations.”
Dr Kyla Orr, Scientific Director and Co-Founder of KelpCrofters, said: “KelpCrofters biostimulants are made with fast-growing kelp species that are carefully cultivated on ropes at sea, a bit like mussel farming. This ocean farming practice means that they do not need to take kelp from the wild, and so do not impact natural marine ecosystems.
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“The farming process does not use heat, drying or harsh chemicals used to make seaweed biostimulants, and this enhances the bioactivity of KelpCrofters products and reduces its environmental footprint.”
In an Innovate UK-funded project, KelpCrofters analysed the composition of their biostimulants and compared them to competitor products, finding that the concentration of amino acids more than 30 times greater than in a seaweed biostimulant made with the rockweed Ascophyllum nodosum, which currently dominates the market.
KelpCrofters biostimulants have been tested on spring barley by Scottish Agronomy, who run the largest independent field trials site in Scotland, in 2024 and 2025, which were amongst the wettest and driest years on record. KelpCrofters seaweed extracts produced average yield increases in spring barley of around 7.8%. KelpCrofters plan to extend trials to potato crops.
