Objective of the workshop:

To improve collaboration and cooperation between stakeholders in the forest-based and agricultural biomass users and to achieve a better understanding of boundaries and opportunities, as well as hurdles that hinder combined biomass production and utilisation.

The aim of the non-food value-chain workshop is to bring together experts of the ETPs covering different aspects of the non-food chain, in order to define development opportunities and cross-sectorial research needs.

One outcome of the workshop was the identification of similarities, differences and synergies between agricultural and forest biomass production and transformation value chains for non-food uses. Collaboration and cooperation between stakeholders in the forest-based and agricultural biomass users are very limited within and between the two sectors with some exceptions like Agro-Forestry systems in the Mediterranean region. Increasing the cooperation between value chains and combined use of sustainable managed biomass in new applications will lead to the production of a new generation of added value products. Traditionally, the business models and the supply chain management are separated between the two sectors. Therefore, one goal of the workshop is the better understanding of the present boundaries and opportunities, as well as hurdles that hinder combined biomass production and utilisation. The understanding of the differences in the primary production processes and logistics of the two important biomass value chains, forest-based and agricultural, and needs and opportunities along these chains are the basis for elaborating ideas for new business concepts and models, including actions towards lead markets.