This collaboration will help both countries to benefit optimally from available resources and facilities, to help reach the agreed reduction of Green House Gasses at COP21 as well as economic growth.
The Cooperation Agreement between AgroPolo Campinas-Brazil en BE-Basic Foundation was signed by their representatives on Monday 7 March 2016 during the opening session of the international ECO-BIO conference at the World Trade Center in Rotterdam.
Brazil
Brazil is the largest tropical country in the world, the 2nd largest agribusiness exporter and has the greatest potential for growth in agricultural production in the world. Due to its characteristics, Brazil is perhaps the country with the greatest development potential in Bioeconomy areas. Brazil already is the 1st sugar producer and exporter, 2nd soy, beef and chicken exporter and 2nd ethanol producer (40% of the domestic fuel market for light vehicles), and the agribusiness represents about 50% of the Brazilian trade balance. The AgroPolo-initiative aims to bundle the efforts of the leading institutions and industries around Campinas for a next step in sustainable economic development.
The Netherlands
The Netherlands is part of the North-West European Industry Cluster that with North-Rhein Westfalia and Flanders has a joint GDP of 1,4 trillion euro of which 25% is related to industrial production. Agro& food (150 billion euro) and chemical sectors (168 billion euro) are important contributors. The Netherlands plays a key role with its marine and aviation mainports and linked industries and consuming companies such as KLM. The Netherlands is keen to green these sectors and is implementing an advanced biofuels strategy.
Continuous innovation is critical and BE-Basic was created a decade ago as a public-private collaboration to support technological and societal development through industrial and environmental biotechnology. BE-Basic has now grown to a worldwide recognised leading organisation, headquartered in The Netherlands, and many of its products and processes have reached market implementation. BE-Basic already collaborates with FAPESP, the research foundation of the State of Sao Paulo since 2010 with a cumulative joint budget exceeding 13 million euro.
Mutual benefit
The agreed collaboration is meant to mutually benefit from the wide portfolio of research institutions, their knowhow and facilities, and offer industries and investors an inducing environment for implementing a sustainable Bioeconomy. Sustainability is a cornerstone of the collaboration. The parties will exchange experiences and best-practices following joint key performance parameters, supporting international cluster-building and networking and actively supporting their partners in Academia and Industry in building bilateral links to prepare joint projects in academic science and industrial R&D. They also agreed to joint R&D projects in the field of industrial biotechnology, following the earlier investments.
