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Costs and profitability of crops for bioeconomy in the EU
File(s)
energies-13-01222.pdf (1.63 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
Panoutsou, Calliope
Alexopoulou, Efthymia
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The bioeconomy is the cornerstone of the EU’s policy for shifting economic and societal trends towards circularity and low carbon arrangements. Europe has several crops that can be used as raw materials for this purpose, however pressure on land which might displace other activities and industrial competition for cost efficient raw materials remains a challenge. Hence, ensuring good yielding capacity and examining the likelihood to produce more by exploiting low quality, unused land can present significant opportunities to increase sustainable, locally sourced supply and at the same time offer profitable solutions to both industry and the farmers. This paper estimates the production costs of fourteen crops (oil, sugar, starch and lignocellulosic) and analyses how their profitability can be influenced by yield increases and cultivation in low quality land. Results show that there are profitable options for all crops under current market prices and land types except for cases in countries where crop productivity is rather low to sustain farm incomes. The analysis confirms that Europe has plenty crop options as raw materials for bioeconomy. Decision makers however must ensure future research and policy support are oriented towards sustainable yield increases and accelerate rehabilitation of land that is unused and of low quality.
Date Issued
2020-03-06
Date Acceptance
2020-03-04
Citation
Energies MDPI, 2020, 13 (5), pp.1-27
URI
URL
DOI
ISSN
1996-1073
Publisher
MDPI
Start Page
1
End Page
27
Journal / Book Title
Energies MDPI
Volume
13
Issue
5
Copyright Statement
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Sponsor
Commission of the European Communities
Commission of the European Communities
Identifier
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/5/1222
Grant Number
IEE/12/835/S12.645920
608622
Subjects
02 Physical Sciences
09 Engineering
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2020-03-06