Towards a high-value bioeconomy: identifying strategic policy options for the national bioeconomy strategy

Problem

Europe’s bioeconomy has been described as both the EU’s ‘strategic growth engine’ and its ‘green motor,’ accelerating competitiveness while also driving the transition to a circular economy. The bioeconomy encompasses the sectors that transform renewable biological resources, such as plants and microorganisms, into food, feed, energy, and other bio-based products. This part of the economy is central to the EU’s long-term resilience because it creates direct pathways towards food, energy, and climate security. To guide developments in the bioeconomy towards broader strategic goals, the EU is set to adopt a new EU Bioeconomy Strategy by the end of 2025. This strategy aims to strengthen the EU’s bioeconomy by fostering innovation and supporting businesses and industries in the green transition.

Coinciding with the EU’s actions, Lithuania is in the process of drafting a National Bioeconomy Strategy. This effort comes at a time when the country’s bioeconomy is generating increasing value, with its contribution to overall GDP rising from 6.8% to 8.4% over the past decade. The anticipated national strategy provides an opportunity to build on this momentum and strengthen what is already a solid foundation for growth.

Lithuania, supported by its abundant natural resources, offers significant potential for biomass-based industries. However, this potential remains largely untapped because many of these natural resources are exported as raw materials. In 2018, for example, only 18% of the outputs from mills were processed into products, and in 2023, 71% of grain harvested in Lithuania was exported. Since raw materials are low value-added products, primarily exporting them constrains Lithuania’s innovation capacity, limiting its ability to create higher value-added products in the bioeconomy. The upcoming National Bioeconomy Strategy presents an opportunity to shift the sector away from primary resource exports, toward higher value-added production. With the right policy tools, the strategy can enable biomass-based industries in realising their full potential.

Goal

The goal of the project is to support the development of Lithuania’s National Bioeconomy Strategy by identifying key policy and regulatory tools that can facilitate the creation of higher value-added bio-based products.

Participants

2025/26

Monika Černiauskaitė

2025/26

Clara Elspeth Doyle