- The agri-food sector has shown its economic and social relevance by ensuring the supply of quality food
- R&D is an essential tool, providing knowledge and technology to address global health and food challenges
- Both sectors converge in plant biotechnology, a strategic area of activity for BIOVEGEN’s associates
The health emergency caused by Covid-19 has paralyzed economic activity and Spanish society. The pandemic has completely disrupted the normal functioning of the country. This scenario has highlighted the great importance of agriculture and R&D+i as essential tools for society to overcome the challenges arising from the health crisis, such as the increase in demand for products while ensuring their supply.
The agri-food sector is strategic and of great social, territorial, economic, and environmental importance. The agri-food value chain, which includes production, processing, and marketing, generates over 9% of the Gross Domestic Product and contributes to the generation of more than 12% of total employment in the Spanish economy. Additionally, Spain ranks as the fourth largest exporter of agri-food products in the European Union, accounting for 9.4% of total exports. These exports represent sales amounting to 49.502 billion euros (16.9% of total Spanish exports), while imports of agri-food products reach 37.384 billion euros (11.4% of total goods imported nationally). Thus, the sector yields a trade surplus of 12.118 billion euros.
Agriculture faces new challenges driven by demographic growth that will increase the demand for raw materials, consumer preferences, environmental and legal aspects, and factors related to the globalization of the economy. Overcoming these challenges requires an increase in efficiency (greater productivity with fewer inputs), quality (nutritional, organoleptic), and sustainability (lower environmental impact, waste recycling, etc.) in agriculture that can only be achieved through the application of new technological developments.
The knowledge generated in Applied Plant Biology offers a set of strategic technologies (bioinformatics, genomic editing techniques, agrobiologicals for nutrition and plant protection, waste valorization and circular economy, new plant sources for obtaining protein…) that will allow addressing the global challenges (productivity, sustainability, quality) faced by the agri-food sector.
Therefore, agriculture, as an essential sector that has not halted its activity and has ensured the supply of all types of agri-food products, and R&D+i, which offers high added value solutions based on knowledge and technology, generating qualified jobs that are not heavily dependent on physical presence, have demonstrated their economic and social relevance, proving essential to tackle current and future challenges.
From BIOVEGEN, as an association of companies and R&D centers in plant production, we bet on technology and will continue to promote R&D and public-private cooperation as a tool for competitive development in the agri-food sector and as a tool for well-being for Spanish society.
About BIOVEGEN – Spanish Technological Platform for Plant Biotechnology
BIOVEGEN – Technological Platform for Plant Biotechnology is a public-private partnership currently composed of 107 members (companies and research/technology centers) as well as the Ministry of Science and Innovation, which supports and co-finances the initiative. Our mission is to promote R&D activities between the scientific and business sectors in the field of plant biology/production.
We are R&D management service providers and we provide added value and business development opportunities to our partners: direct and indirect financing, partner and client search, international projection, advisory services, relations with the administration, the scientific community, and the rest of the business sector with innovation activities, participation in our own and third-party events under special conditions, visibility, access to exclusive information (news bulletins, R&D proposals, qualified human resources…).