Ficosterra: selected to participate in Brussels in the BlueInvest Day 2020

BlueInvest Day 2020 meets next on February 4 in Brussels 206 entrepreneur’s forum organized by the General Directorate of Maritime Affairs of the European Commission which will be attended by investors, companies, and stakeholders of the Blue Economy.

Blueinvest Day is a day organized by the General Directorate of Maritime Affairs of the European Union to publicize the best business initiatives, innovation and start-up related to the development of the so-called Economía Azul.

Ficosterra is the only Spanish start-up selected to present its marine biotechnology project applied to agriculture, an innovative, sustainable and environmentally friendly project.

This will not be the first time we present our business project outside our borders. Our participation in October 2019 in the Blue BioValue business acceleration program, offered us to give visibility to our project internationally. As we informed you in our NEWS of 10/22/19, Blue BioValue is an international business acceleration program, organized by the Blue Ocean Foundation and the Gulbenkian Gulbenki Foundation in collaboration with Startup Factory, the Bluebio, and Faber Ventures , whose mission is to foster a more blue economy by helping to develop projects and ideas that represent a business opportunity within the marine biological resources chain, including biotechnology, to promote the supply of products or services with a positive impact in the sustainability of the ocean.

The 2019 edition focused on finding solutions to the 6 main challenges currently present:

  1. Feed a growing population by ensuring sustainable supply systems
  2. Improve health and well-being
  3. Climate change
  4. Reduction of CO2 emissions
  5. Preserve natural ecosystems, biodiversity and resource shortages
  6. Promote circular bioeconomics and reduce plastic production and pollution.

In this edition Ficosterra won a prize with the Portuguese Bisolvit and the Scottish uFraction8, two start-ups also related to the marine world.

Luis Lombana, General Director of Ficosterra, will present the project in Brussels

Luis Lombana, CEO of Ficosterra, will present the project in a forum attended by more than 200 participants. They will be the same ones who will also be eligible for the BlueInvest Awards , awards that distinguish the 20 best European initiatives in the form of innovative products, technologies, and solutions that can shape the future of the Blue Economy.

A select panel of investors will also be present in this selective process, endorsed by the European Commission.

What is the Blue Economy?

Seas and oceans constitute the engine of the Blue Economy

According to the European Union, the Blue Economy is all those activities that recognize the value of the seas and oceans as engines of the economy for their great potential for innovation and growth.

Several interdependent sectors make up this increasingly powerful economy: fisheries, aquaculture and marine biotechnology, tourism, navigation, the marine wind industry, and maritime transport, among others. All of them have common competencies and shared infrastructure (ports, logistics networks, and electricity distribution) and, at the same time, they all sustainably use marine resources.

The United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, France, and Greece have the largest “blue economies” in the European Union. According to data from this institution, the blue economy “has grown in several EU member states faster than the national economy in the last decade” and continues to grow “steadily.” With a turnover of 566,000 million euros in 2016, the sector generates 174 million euros of added value and creates jobs for almost 3.5 million people, 1.6% of total EU employment.

In the case of Spain, the Blue Economy employed more than 691,000 people in 2016 and generated, according to the same report, approximately 23 million euros of added value. Topping the list is the tourism sector, with 77% of total employment, followed by the marine resources sector, with 17%. Emerging sectors such as biotechnology and the employment of the offshore wind industry are also booming.

Given these data, we do not doubt affirming that Ficosterra’s business project is located in a sector of great future and with a long history. The production of inputs from seaweed is a 100% ecological and sustainable alternative for our crops. Today they are presented as a necessity demanded by European policies and also our most innovative farmers. That argument will be the basis of Lombana’s presentation in his intervention shift that will be extended in a 25-minute session.

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