Minister Essayah spoke in Brussels: Bioeconomy means opportunities for rural areas, farmers and EU
The bioeconomy offers great opportunities for ensuring the vitality of the countryside and its livelihoods and strengthening the strategic resilience of the EU. This was Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Sari Essayah’s key message as she spoke at the Conference on the Vision for Agriculture and Food in Brussels on 8 May.
Essayah had been invited to Brussels to present Finland’s work on the bioeconomy. Finland is seen as one of the leading EU countries in the bioeconomy sector. The EU is currently updating its Bioeconomy Strategy.
“The EU’s Bioeconomy Strategy must be highly ambitious and forward-looking. It must encourage innovation and to manufacturing new products in the EU. One of the aims of the strategy must be to ensure the availability of renewable raw materials. Together we can build an economically profitable and environmentally sustainable bioeconomy that will strengthen the EU’s competitiveness,” Essayah summed up.
Essayah presented several examples of the work done for the bioeconomy in the Finnish natural resources sector. One of these is the Biomass Atlas maintained by the Natural Resources Institute Finland. Biomass Atlas is an open service that collects location data about biomass under a single user interface. The Natural Resources Institute Finland also coordinates the work to create a monitoring system for food loss and waste in Finland. The Programme for Nutrient Recycling, in turn, offers project and investment grants to promote nutrient recycling in biogas production and manure management as well as carbon sequestration.
Essayah stressed the importance of the bioeconomy in terms of the vitality of the rural areas and, through this, security. The bioeconomy sector, which comprises agriculture and the food sector and forestry, generates income to the rural areas and maintains and creates jobs. “Through this, we will also strengthen the security of supply and security in general,” Essayah pointed out.
The conference brought together various stakeholders to discuss the future of farming and the agri-food sector. The conference was related to the Commission’s vision for agriculture and food published in February 2025. Essayah had been invited as the keynote speaker for the bioeconomy theme.
“The conference was excellent; it was forward-looking and recognised the current challenges very well. There is a wide interest in the bioeconomy, even if it looks very different in different parts of Europe. This is why discussions like this are highly valuable,” Essayah said.
Inquiries:
Iina Mattila, Special Adviser to the Minister, tel. +358 50 4736221