Benefitting from the Development of the Bioeconomy: the Case of Bulgaria

Abstract

The bioeconomy is a concept predominantly addressing industries producing and processing biological products with the aim of making them contribute to the transformation of modern economies into more sustainable, green, circular and climate-neutral economies. The aim of the article is to study the benefits of the development of the bioeconomy in Bulgaria, seen as economic, security and climate change impacts. All of these require a balanced management of biomass application, especially for non-food purposes, in order to obtain positive impacts and avoid the degradation of the ecosystem. For these reasons, different approaches to the governance of the bioeconomy are adopted worldwide. Bioeconomic industries in Bulgaria are vulnerable to climate change, and need investment to adapt to it. The main bioindustries are agriculture and food processing with respect to value added and employment, as they are of low efficiency in comparison with EU results. These sectors show resilience in the case of health risks and need technological modernisation and efficiency improvement through new supply chains and approaches to waste management. Renewable energy generation was stable during Covid-19 lockdowns, and impacted positively the decrease in greenhouse emmissions. Along with the ecological benefits, RES increases energy diversification and contributes to national security.