The official launch of the European project B-Resilient will take place on the 14th of September in Brussels.

More than ever, we are conscient that we live in a world of limited resources! Global challenges like the environmental crisis the world is facing today, aggravated by the supply chain and energy disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine War, make the transition to a climate-neutral society urgent. The European Green Deal has confirmed the EU’s ambition to become the first climate neutral continent by 2050, safeguarding people, planet, and prosperity.

The current European agri-food value chains have been under considerable pressure in recent years. Like other industries, they face increasing volatility across a range of business parameters like energy cost fluctuations, logistic restrictions, resource scarcity, etc. In addition, agri-food value chains also face their own unique vulnerabilities due to the limited shelf life of food and variability in quality and availability of raw materials. There is enough scientific evidence showing that these vulnerabilities may become more pronounced in the future due to the impact of external factors as climate change, increase of global population, shifting of customer demands and dietary habits, market’s volatility, ageing workforce, among other things. In short, agri-food value chains need a paradigm shift to improve the way they source raw materials, manufacture, and market from a global sustainability perspective. Only in this way will we achieve an increasingly competitive and resilient sector.

In this context, the launch of the B-Resilient Project, with its systemic perspective, set an ambitious package of support actions to empower food processing SMEs to become more resilient by means of an optimum use of biomass, and with appropriate digital solutions. The project will focus on maximising usage of available feedstock and its subsequent valorisation of side streams into innovative bio-based ingredients. B-Resilient project is built on a zero-waste and circular concept, improving the competitiveness of food processing SME from an environmentally sustainable perspective.

With the motivation of all partners, the B-Resilient team states that “Because climate and social context has changed, our economics, too, need to change. More efficient, eco-sustainable and site integrated agri-food production, combined with optimized food distribution and management, and healthier and more sustainable eating habits are required for a more effective, fairer, and more resilient post-pandemic food safety and nutrition security regime in Europe.”

B-Resilient Project brings together 8 leading European clusters from 5 Different countries. The project is counts with 1,5 million as total budget of European funding of which 1,12 million goes directly to Food Processing SME thanks to the B-Resilient Financial Support to Third Parties Scheme.