During the 24th and 25th of February, as part of the EU Industry Week, the Institut Catalá de Sant Isidre organized a local online event focused on discussing the role of the agroindustry for becoming circular the bioeconomy. A wide range of panelists participated and encouraged an interesting discussion. Some highlights of both sessions were:

Javier Santacruz (Director of Studies of Institut Agricola) pointed out the new report of the European Parliament about circular economy, launched on January 28th 2021, pretends a realistic process bearing in mind sustainability, changing process and the environmental, social and economic impact.

Juan Ignacio Zoido (MEP) remembered the CAP is a strategic one for Europe, being a fundamental pillar of the EU from the ‘60s decade and guarantor of our legal security and efficiency as it has been demonstrated across the pandemic period. Zoido expressed his opinión on how the CAP has been grown from the agri-food sector to other related topics such as biodiversity, rural depopulation, diet habits or sustainability, among others; nonetheless his point of view is that the CAP should be focused on agriculture and dedicate alternative funds outside the CAP to the topics mentioned before.

Ignasi Sans (Technical Services Director of Institut Agricola) talked about the importance of joining strategies related to bioeconomy and circular economy in order to achieve SDGs in 2030. He also pointed out that startups must be connected to rural areas.

Natalie Hufnagi-Jovy (Deutscher Forst-Wirtschafsrat) mentioned the importance of recognising Europe as a diverse approach where global problems and solutions must be adapted to local realities.

Martin Gurria (Word Bank Senior Consultant) spoke about the geo-strategic vision about the circular bioeconomy and encouraged European startups to revolutionize the agri-food sector.

Javier Arias (President of LECE International and Capítulo Español member) mentioned that, in the near future, the whole value chain will demand to the rest of the members (providers, clients and customers) a strong commitment regarding sustainability and an effective change on processes and procedures; thus those companies that do not update theirself for a green & circular behaviour, will be discriminated in the market.

It is worth noting that the previous idea was shared also by other panellists. For instance, Alina Puig (ESR Director of Mercadona Cataluña) spoke about how her Company is working on looking for synergies with suppliers in order to improve and make more efficient and sustainable their logistic processes. Moreover, Joan Romaní (CEO Renerbio Group) shared that the 50% of his customer portfolio are currently asking them for being “more green” and he expects this figure will increase widely in the mid-term.

Narcís Berberana (AGBAR Strategy Director) pointed out that we are in a transition time, where the previous linear model will coexist with the circular one in the upcoming years. Definitely, companies will adopt green and circular models to collaborate with the SDG 12 about sustainable consumption and production patterns.   

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Full agenda

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‍ https://www.institutagricola.org/_pdfs/jornada-eu-industry-week-versio-final-21613475057.pdf