Industrial Biotechnology is currently worth €23 billion representing just 6% in sales of the overall worldwide chemicals market. However, it is significantly out-performing the overall chemicals market at an impressive 20% annual growth rate and has the potential to become the dominant technology of tomorrow’s chemicals industry, representing a huge future opportunity.
Delivering on this opportunity will require significant investment, innovation and value chain development and most importantly new collaborations across the sector. Additionally we are faced with important challenges posed by high energy prices, the impact of the shale gas boom on the development of biobased chemicals markets and the ongoing need for predictable, coherent and supportive policy in the EU.
In order to understand and overcome these challenges and prosper in tomorrow’s bioeconomy, for more than ten years, industry experts throughout the vibrant and innovative biobased community have come together to one central location every year to discuss the key issues and gain a snapshot of the most significant developments on scale up of commercial biorefineries around the world.
That location is the European Forum for Industrial Biotechnology & the Bioeconomy (EFIB), where delegates are provided with an update on the status and outlook of biobased industries. EFIB is proud to foster engagement between policy makers, a broad range of stakeholders connected with the existing biobased value chain and seeks to reach out to, and include, new interlocutors.
In the last decade, EFIB delegates, exhibitors, sponsors and speakers have been showcasing innovative products and processes that deliver solutions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Last year, we celebrated the Industrial biotech communities’ latest achievements in harnessing the power of innovation to deliver solutions to global grand challenges. Influential brands and industry leaders met with a broad range of stakeholders and policy makers to discuss the transformative potential of Industrial Biotechnology to create a smarter and more sustainable future.
