According to the Eu- ropean Commission, the sub-sectors of ‘blue biotechnology‘ and ‘aquaculture‘ possess considerable economic potential for Europe. insects. Ynsect, based Potential in food production The production of fish and meat also offers considerable potential for innovation. An example is the production of animal feed from in France, managed to raise EUR 100 million to expand and optimise its production of larvae. Nasekomo from Bulgaria, Protix from the Netherlands and Hexafly from Ireland, among others, focus on breeding black soldier flies. It remains to be seen which company will win the competition for the most cost-efficient processes. New methods of producing fruit and vegetables also seem exciting. Novel f arming systems involve in-house produc- tion processes such as those employed by Belgium’s Urban Crop Solutions, which provides facilities for in-house farming, or Agricool from France, which produces strawberries in containers and managed to raise EUR 30 million in funds. EFOS from Slovenia improves analy- tical methods, using artificial intelligence to analyse insect infestations and insecti- cide application. Innovative technologies will transform agriculture. The USA has seen interesting transactions in this field: two examples are Oxitec, which develops new insecticides and was acquired by Intrexon Corp. for USD 160 million, and Blue River, which was acquired by John Deere for USD 305 million thanks to its intelligent irrigation machines. In the future, drones with high-precision ana- lytical tools will considerably reduce the use of crop protection agents and ferti- lisers and increase the efficiency of field production. Food waste processing also offers new investing possibilities. PeelPioneers from the Netherlands extracts valuable chemi- cals and fibres from orange peels which would otherwise be dumped in landfills. The company’s biorefinery delivers pro- ducts that are already being used in food and fodder-related applications. On the French-German border, AFYREN is building a new plant that manufactures natural acids from food industry by-pro- ducts (such as molasses). These in turn can be used to produce food or cosmetics. According to the European Commis- sion, the sub-sectors of “blue biotechno- logy” and “aquaculture” possess conside- rable economic potential for Europe. Companies produce and transform aquatic biomass into products with added value. Approximately 16% of the animal protein consumed worldwide comes from fish. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that aquaculture currently supplies about half of that, and that this share will increase to 65% by 2030. Digitalisation can promote the growth of aquaculture. The Norwegian company Aquabyte, for example, uses hardware and AI software in fish farms to monitor the consumption of feed, thereby minimising waste production and saving money. A further example of aquaculture is the industrial cultivation of seaweed. TANGO Seaweed, also from Norway, produces high-quality seaweed and other macroalgae for human consumption and other applications. Potential in the textile industry Textile waste streams offer tremendous potential: every year, approximately 75 billion kilogrammes of new textile fibres are produced globally. 24 billion kilo- grammes of this come from cotton, which generates 10% of total CO2 emissions and 25% of the total use of insecticides. On average, production of one kilogramme requires 8,000 litres of water. A number of innovative bioeconomy companies in Europe are capable of recycling textiles. Re:newcell, Spinnova and Ioncell are examples from the Scandinavian coun- tries; these have demonstration or pilot plants that they are gradually expanding. Pressure to innovate in the packaging industry A further field of considerable importance that has great potential is the packaging industry, which is under significant pres- sure to innovate. In the EU, the per capita packaging waste for 2017 amounted to Industrial Bioeconomy fuel resources. According 173 kilogrammes. The largest portion of plastic packaging is manufactured using fossil to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the avoidance of packaging, recycling, and new bio-based and biodegradable materials play an important role. A num- ber of innovative companies produce bio-based packaging from lignocellulose (Paptic and Sulapac from Finland) or from the waste streams of dairy pro- duction (Lactips, France); other com- panies focus on recycling packaging materials. listed companies Carbios (France) and L’Oréal founded a consortium to bring the biorecycling technology designed and developed by Carbios to the market. In 2017, look Summary This short and incomplete overview of the different sub-sectors of bioeconomy reveals great potential. Plainly, this can only be leveraged to an appreciable extent through investments. Investors are showing increasing readiness to meet environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) criteria and to participate in the development of a bio-based circular economy. In addition, the view that impact goals cause reductions in profit is giving way to the realisation that invest- ments in non ESG-compliant companies involve risks that jeopardise returns. Impact and rate of return increasingly go hand in hand. Nevertheless, most inves- tors for business models that demonstrably function and are predic- table. On the other hand, while inno- vations have the potential to generate high returns, they are fraught with uncer- tainties. Investors often lack the capacity to assess innovative bioeconomy com- panies. Herein lies the importance of spe- cialised funds with the necessary industry expertise for evaluation of investments in such companies. These funds can sup- port the management of these companies actively and entrepreneurially, enabling them to grow from regional players to pan-European enterprises. They can also motivate other investors to invest in bioeconomy companies. The climate for this is increasingly improving – despite, or even due to, the coronavirus crisis – because is now gaining steam and showing considerable market potential. transformation the 03-2020 „Biotechnologie“ ls 9