The Finnish Bioeconomy Strategy.

The Finnish Bioeconomy Strategy is a national strategy for the period 2014-2025 adopted to develop the Finnish bioeconomy. Its objective is to generate new economic growth and new jobs from an increase in the bioeconomy business and from high added value products and services while securing the operating conditions for the nature’s ecosystems. In quantitative terms, the Strategy aims at increasing the output of the Finnish bioeconomy to EUR 100 billion by 2025 and to create 100,000 new jobs. The Strategy's four strategic goals are: 1. A competitive operating environment for the bioeconomy; 2. New business from the bioeconomy; 3. A strong bioeconomy competence base; and 4. Accessibility and sustainability of biomasses. The strategy acknowledges the importance of sustainable consumption and production patterns for sustainable economic growth and well-being of the Finnish people, and provides an overall picture and outlines the strategic choices that are a precondition for achieving the bioeconomy objectives.
In the area of sustainable food and agriculture, new businesses may be generated by exploiting the opportunities offered by closed systems, biorefineries, domestic animal production side streams and field biomasses. By exploiting the side streams of the food industry, the Strategy foresees the production of new biorefinery products for the chemical industry. Moreover, energy fractions from side streams can also be used for energy production. Importantly, local food production that taps regional resources and strengths in response to expanding consumer demand should be promoted. The Strategy also foresees the opportunity for small-scale producers and agriculture businesses to achieve higher rates of self-sufficiency if side streams are utilised for nutrient recycling and local bioenergy production.
Specific actions considered across the four strategic goals of the Strategy are: Anticipating the global demand for bioeconomy solutions and preparing roadmaps; Developing steering methods to support new bioeconomy solutions, including through legislation; Providing incentives for the replacement of non renewable natural resources by renewable ones in public procurement; Promoting demand for bioeconomy products and services, including of food products; Promoting the standardisation and certification of bioeconomy solutions; Smart green urban regions as development environments for bioeconomy solutions; Incorporating the bioeconomy in Finland’s country image; Increasing equity financing and innovation inputs in the bioeconomy; Funding piloting and demonstrations projects of new bioeconomy solutions; Developing bioeconomy cooperation platforms across sectoral boundaries; Promoting immaterial value creation to increase the added value of products and services; Developing education content to train bioeconomy experts; Creating preconditions for bioeconomy through research; Ensuring the possibilities of using biomasses and their availability for the needs of a growing bioeconomy; and Making more efficient use of knowledge related to biomass resources.