The Finnish forest industry has launched the New tree project. The project aims to increase awareness of the wood-based bioeconomy – of products and solutions already available, their impact on society and the growth potential of the sector.
Bioproducts offer huge growth potential
The bioeconomy is one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world. It concerns the production, use, processing and marketing of renewable natural resources and the consumption of products made from renewable natural resources. Wood is a renewable and increasing natural resource, which makes the forestry sector a natural part of the bioeconomy.
Bioproducts made from wood represent one of the most significant industries of the Finnish national economy. The forestry sector has decades of experience in making use of wood fibre.
International value chains that process raw materials into products offer excellent growth opportunities for the Finnish bioindustry. For example, packaging made from wood fibre can be used alongside or instead of products made from plastic. The global frozen food industry alone is a business of around USD 260 billion, and the monthly production volume of microwave meal containers made from wood fibre can be in the hundreds of millions.
In Finland, the annual total value of the bioeconomy is more than EUR 60 billion. Finland’s bioeconomy strategy aims to increase its value to EUR 100 billion and create 100,000 new jobs by 2025. Wood-based industries can represent more than half of this. In the European Union, the bioeconomy sectors total around EUR 2,000 billion in net sales annually, and bioeconomy industries employ around 22 million people.
Goals do not materialise by themselves. Wood is a renewable and increasing natural resource, which makes the forestry sector a natural part of the bioeconomy.
Operators in the forestry sector decided to join forces and launch the New Tree project to increase awareness of the wood-based bioeconomy – of products and solutions already available, their impact on society and the growth potential of the sector.
The New Tree project is open to all operators in the field, and the participants represent an extensive range of Finnish forestry sector players, from forest owners to organisations, small and large companies, educational institutions, employees and users of wood-based products. They all share a strong desire to develop, market and make use of wood-based bioproduct expertise. Visit the Contact page for an up-to-date list of participating organisations.
