Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon has stressed the importance of "added-value" for farmers as he launched a major project in Co. Tipperary.

The €4.7 million National Biorefinery Pilot Plant along with the €5 million BioScaleUp initiative opened at the National Bioeconomy Campus today (Thursday, June 25) at the Lisheen mine site.

The facilities will help take agricultural, food, forestry and other bio-based side streams that are often seen as waste, turning them into new valuable products for sectors such as food ingredients, bio-packaging and bioenergy.

Speaking at the event today, Minister Heydon said for farmers, importance lies in "adding value to some of the produce they have and identifying value propositions there, but also having a much more circular element to our food production system".

He added that the Food Vision 2030 strategy has "been about increasing the value of our exports, increasingly the value of our products, without necessarily increasing the volume of them".

He said opportunities such as those in producing energy must be identified and "that gives us opportunity to increase the value of return back to our farmers".

Bioeconomy

Along with primary producers, there are opportunities for companies "that have challenges around waste streams that have a value and they just didn't realise that before now", Minister Heydon said.

"That ultimately is what the bioeconomy is about. It's about moving to a more circular element," he said.

"The best example I give from an agricultural perspective is [that] it's not that long ago that farmers took whey protein and fed it to pigs."

He highlighted the rise in people using GLP‑1 weight‑loss drugs such as in the US and therefore having less nutrient intake.

"You'd think as a food-producing nation that's a big risk for us and a challenge - it's an opportunity because those people are forced to have a bigger focus on what their protein intake will be."

He said food and drink companies "need to innovate", with the opportunity to increase value back for farmers and fishers being "really significant".

Biorefinery plant

This launch in Co. Tipperary is said to be a "major step" in the transformation of the former Lisheen Mine into a centre for future-facing green innovation, bio-based enterprise and regional development.

The National Biorefinery Pilot Plant is an open-access pilot biorefinery facility designed to help researchers, start-ups, SMEs and industry partners test, validate and scale bio-based products and processes.

The facility supports the conversion of renewable biological resources and side streams into higher-value products including ingredients, bioactives, chemicals, materials and energy applications.

The BioScaleUp Bioeconomy Demonstration Initiative will demonstrate and scale six innovative bio-based technologies at the National Biorefinery Pilot Plant, showing how renewable biological resources, residues and side streams can be converted into higher-value products.

These will include food and feed ingredients, proteins and bioactive compounds, natural colours, aromas and flavours, peptides, amino acid ingredients, green chemical inputs for bioplastics and textiles, biomaterials, biomethane and other renewable energy applications.

Director of the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly, managing authority of the EU Just Transition Fund, Clare Bannon, welcomed the launch of the biorefinery pilot plant.

"Investments such as those made by the government of Ireland and the EU through the EU Just Transition Fund into large-scale bioeconomy projects demonstrate how EU funding can drive transformative place-based regional development," Bannon said.

"The significant investments into the circular economy and novel solutions to scale new bio-based industries are helping create new employment opportunities and strengthen the long-term competitiveness of the wider midlands."