The data show that the turnover of the total bioeconomy in the EU-28 increased continuously from 2.09 trillion EUR to 2.29 trillion EUR. Roughly half of this comes from the food and beverages sector, almost a quarter of the turnover is produced by the primary sectors (agriculture and forestry), while the other quarter is produced by the bio-based industries (such as chemicals and plastics, pharmaceuticals, paper and paper products, forest-based industries, textile sector, biofuels and bioenergy).
The total turnover of the bio-based industries increased from 647 billion in 2008 to 698 billion Euro in 2015. Biofuels and bioenergy together accounted for roughly 12% of the turnover of the EU ‘bio-based economy’, which corresponds to a total amount of approximately 80 billion Euro, while the sectors paper and paper products (27%) and forest-based industry (wood products and furniture, 25%) make up for the largest shares of turnover: together this amounts to roughly 360 billion €. Bio-based chemicals and plastics accounted for 50 billion €.
Employment
The employment within the total European bioeconomy results in 13.9 million jobs with about 3 quarters in the primary sector. The total employment in the ‘bio-based industries’ is 3.7 million jobs in 2015. The most prominent sectors are the forest-based industry, paper and paper products, and the textile industry.
Chemical industry
The study also showed an overall increase in the bio-based share in the EU-28 from 5.8% in 2008 to 7.3% in 2015. The raw material for the chemical industry is about 50% organic (fossil and bio-based) and about 50% inorganic (minerals, metals). Only taking the organic part into account, the overall bio-based share increased from 12% in 2008 to 15 % in 2015.
Dirk Carrez, managing director Bio-Based Industries Consortium
