IENICA REPORT: BELGIUM

Executive summary
Oil crops
Fibre crops
Carbohydrate crops
Crops with special uses

Executive Summary

The report has been divided into four parts – oil, fibre, carbohydrates and other compounds- but several proposals applying to all parts can be formulated as an introduction.

European Union must be considered simultaneously as a producer of raw agricultural materials, as a processor of agricultural products widely open to -or constrained by- the world market, as a large but nevertheless limited market, as a territory with natural and man-made environment to be managed if not protected and as a population whose a decreasing proportion is living on agricultural activities that transform atmospheric CO2 into usable organic matter.

In our review, very few plant based end-products have appeared as real "new" products. Nearly all appear as existing end-products wherein vegetable based materials could serve as substitutes for currently used raw material from non agricultural origin: vegetable oils to replace mineral oils in lubricants, agricultural fibres to replace synthetic and forest fibres, bioplastics in place of plastics, …. Those "green" products display about similar qualities, rarely superior, sometimes inferior, to the "conventional" or "synthetic" products but by their origin they contribute to saving limited non renewable resources, they participate to carbon cycle without increasing the disequilibrium due to the wild injection of fossil carbon into atmosphere as CO2 and many of them display less risks for human health (toxicity) and environment (ecotoxicity).

So it appears that the future development of non food plant-based end-products is little if any linked to superior functional properties but widely depends on the importance given to side-features such as human health, environment, agricultural activities in rural zones, whose value is uneasy to precisely assess. The industry will follow- if not precede- according to the demand - spontaneous or oriented by public regulations- progressively providing "new" green products and solving all technical problems linked to economical and ecological melioration of the making processes. European Union programs could

support basic technical research on plant and on industrial processes,

aim to adopt common legislative measures on environment, health, genetically modified organisms,

support management of sound data bases,

help in the definition of industry needs and

favour dialogue between agriculture, industry and the society as a base for organising the production networks and chains and for taking advantage of agriculture potentialities.

Part 1. Oil crops

Current development of oil crops in Belgium is limited to a relatively small production of oilseed rape (5,000 to 10,000 ha; 7,000 to 15,000 t oil ) and to a very small acreage of linseed (less than 200 ha). Surfaces devoted to non-food oil crops broadly reflects the set aside rates in the CAP frame. There is no direct link between agricultural production and real industrial needs.

Several alternative oil crops have displayed poor agricultural performances due to a lack of adaptation to local ecology and to not sufficient domestication, so that no species could be currently recommended for secure and profitable cropping at farm level. Furthermore industry demand for specific fatty acids or other components is not clearly defined.

In Belgium, the development of oil crops for non-food uses (bio-fuels not included ) will be slow, linked to the Agenda 2000 and the future CAPs. Legal rules or incentives could increase the use of vegetable oils and favour or impose the use of European vegetable oils.

One part of rape oil and all linseed oil is dedicated to non-food uses and enters uses such as paints, detergents, inks, lubricants… . Those sectors have recently given more attention to vegetable oils and seem to be capable of a significant development of the volume they utilise.

At the processing level true technical barriers are only few and they could be solved.

Future development of non-food vegetable oils is largely linked to environmental awareness and incitements to replace mineral oils.

Priorities could be given to vegetable oil products displaying advantages in relation with human health and environment protection. Lost lubricants, lubricants used in the food sector (30.000 t for Belgium, nearly 1.000.000 t for E.U.) and surfactants notably those used in detergents, cosmetics and body-care products appear as priorities, followed by vegetable inks and surfactants for other uses. Vegetable oil based products could enter as fuel additives, be it in small proportion, contributing in fossil oil resource savings.

In an open market, European vegetable oils are in competition with foreign oils. The ability of facing that competition depends on agriculture capability to produce suitable oils at low price i.e. high yields, precise and optimal input use, on-farm and post-harvest effectiveness. European agriculture has the right to take part in - and profit of - quantitative and qualitative advances in plant breeding including those linked to GMO.

Part 2. Fibre crops

Fibrous raw materials are from forest and non-forest origins.

In Belgium, vegetable fibres and lignocellulosic products other than forest wood are from cereal straw and from flax. It seems that straw must widely remain as a by-product to be recycled by agriculture itself (soil organic matter, animal husbandry). Up to now attempts for developing other agricultural crops (hemp, sorghum, Miscanthus, short rotation coppice,..) have been unsuccessful. Hemp could most easily enter existing farming systems.

Surface devoted to forest in the European Union has increased during this century and forestation is still encouraged at the moment. In Belgium, forest surface has reached about 600.000 ha, one fifth of the territory area. Forest management and wood exploitation have continuously improved and in a lot of applications wood will remain an important competitor to agricultural fibre and lignocellulose.

Except in textiles where cotton, wool and artificial fibres successfully compete with flax and hemp very few end-products can be considered as "noble" products. In a lot of materials (paper, cardboard, building materials,…) substitution is easy from one to another fibre or lignocellulose source. Plant fibres could replace some fossil-originated materials. But due to a low value per unit produced, the production of fibre crops will remain located on marginal lands in competition with forestation or on set aside land.

Part 3. Carbohydrate crops

Numerous crops provide carbohydrates in the broad sense, mainly under the form of sugar (beet, chicory, …) or of starch (cereals, potato, ..).

Many of those species are very effective in utilising light, water and minerals resources.

Industrial processes allow nearly all transformations from sugar and starch to various polymers, plastics, and basic materials for composite material preparation.

In that topic agricultural products may provide a large spectrum of raw material as close as possible adapted to specific end-products. Various carbohydrates coupled with vegetable oils derivatives and with fibres from wood or crops can supply a lot of materials displaying precise functional properties, suitable life-cycles (degradability, aptitude to recycling, properties in relation to environment) including savings in fuels (petrol additive as ETBE) and energy supply.

Part 4. Crops with special uses.

A lot of biomolecules synthesised by plants as secondary metabolites have found uses in the past, are still in use or have been replaced by artificial looking-like molecules. Natural condiments, flavours, dyes, perfumes plus drugs, herbal drinks will still be in demand. Some species could be promoted for various reasons from ecological to functional (drug effectiveness, absence of non-desired side-effects on health and environment,…). In Belgium, if a set aside is proposed to farmers, where more biodiversity is wished, for instance in natural park areas, or if plant-originated "agrochemicals" are promoted, some crops (dyes, medicinal plants, ….) could be encouraged. They will occupy small surfaces but could provide some revenues if the sector is well organised, i.e. dialogue between producers and processors, volume of the production adapted to the demand, contracts with industries, quality criterions, prices.