IENICA REPORT: GERMANY
Executive summary
Oilseeds
Fibre crops
Carbohydrates
Specialist crops
Outlook
Executive summary
Germany has a total area of 35.7 million ha. 19.5 million ha of this area is agricultural area. In 1996, 17.3 million ha were used by agriculture, 11.8 million ha of this area were arable land.
In 1997, Germany had a good 525.000 farms with more than 1 ha agriculturally used area, a good 31,000 of these farms were located in the new states.
Production of regrowing raw materials has a long tradition in agriculture. Beside food, raw materials were always provided for craft and later also for industry and energetic use. In the 20th century, regrowing raw materials lost much of their importance because of the use of fossil energy carriers and the production of petrochemical products. Only in the last years, the interest increased again. The reasons for this are:
Regrowing raw materials are CO2 neutral to a great extent and therefore without negative impact on the world‘s climate.
The use of these raw materials helps to extend the limited fossil resources.
The production of regrowing raw materials eases surplus food markets and opens up production and income alternatives to the agriculture. This safeguards jobs and creates new jobs in agriculture and at industry locations.
Regrowing raw materials offer the chance for innovative developments and products, which can be placed on the worldwide market. The high environmental compatibility from production via use to disposal of natural raw materials is a main sales argument.
With 500,182 ha (1998), the regrowing raw materials are only cultivated on a relatively small part of the arable area. While the cultivation on base areas is steadily increasing, the cultivation on set aside areas mainly depends on the set aside rate determined by the European Common Agricultural Policy. Oilseeds, especially rape, is cultivated on set aside unused areas. Starch, sugar, vegetable oils (especially linseed oil) as well as flax and hemp are produced on base areas.
Germany has a considerable production potential for oilseeds. Oilseed (rapeseed, sunflower seed, linseed) acreage was around 1 million ha in recent years, leading to an oilseed production of 2 - 3 million tons per year. The 17 major German oil mills crush 7 - 7,7 million tons of oilseeds per year, i.e. a considerable part of oilseeds is imported from third countries. For all application areas described before, Germany possesses qualified research institutes and industries. To give just some examples, Henkel KG aA, Düsseldorf, is the major oleochemical producer in Europe, Fuchs Petrolub AG, Mannheim is market leader in biodegradable lubricants. So it is difficult to find one single bottleneck limiting further development. All the tasks described under 1.2 have to be tackled simultaneously.
Fibre crops
In contrast to the sector of vegetable oils, for the area of plant fibres the whole primary production, processing and utilisation infrastructure is not well developed in Germany. Many companies active in this field suffer from a lack of capital, causing difficulties to overcome periods with low revenues. This makes it difficult to transfer the results of numerous R&D projects into practice.
Equivalent to the sector of oils and fats, Germany has good natural conditions for the primary production of starch or sugar containing crops and cellulose. The processing industry is highly efficient. In 1995, 9 starch companies produced in 17 plants, mainly in North Germany and East Bavaria. Also the sugar processing industry has undergone a concentration process during the last ten years. Both industries are highly research and innovation oriented. Also the standard of the German chemical industry in utilising carbohydrates is high. So future activities should focus on expanding existing and finding new applications for carbohydrates.
German cellulose producers, with only six remaining plants, satisfy only 17 % of the paper pulp demand and 10 - 15 % of the chemical pulp demand. Therefore the expansion of production capacities is in the planning stage.
Specialist crops
Dyeing and pharmaceutical crops are ‘niche’ activities, but might have high importance for individual farmers or regions. In the field of natural dyes, the reintegration into the industrial processes of the textile industry is of major importance. Reliable supply in sufficient quantities and defined, good qualities are necessary to improve the market position of natural dyes.
In the field of pharmaceutical crops, a huge market for ‘natural’ remedies is existing, and several companies are active in this field. Competition exists between collected and cultivated natural raw materials as well as synthetic substances. Reliable, high quality supply is necessary. Crop protection is a specific problem, as few pesticides are available for niche cultures and pesticide residues would be particularly harmful in the case of a pharmaceutical. For all efforts, the market size has to be considered.
In 1998, 500,182 hectares were used for cultivating growing raw materials in Germany. The most important raw materials which were cultivated on this area are: starch (140,000 ha), rape oil (220,200 ha), linseed oil (95,240 ha), sunflower oil (22,400 ha), sugar (11,000 ha), flax and hemp fibre (4,000 ha) and medicinal herbs (4,000 ha). In total, approximately 4.5% of the entire area of arable land in Germany were used for growing raw materials in 1998.
What will the future development of the cultivation and use of growing raw materials will look like? The difficulty of answering this question becomes clear if the different parameters which are influencing this development are considered:
Presumably the development of the prices for energy and raw materials coming from fossil resources compared to the price development of agriculturally produced raw materials will have the greatest influence on the future development of the cultivation of growing raw materials. It is to be expected that – at least on a short or medium-term base – the prices for fossil raw materials will not significantly increase. Mineral oil, natural gas and coal will still play a dominating role in supplying the chemical and power-supply industries with raw materials. This means, for example, that basic chemicals that are made of growing raw materials will only become competitive if the price for mineral oil prices doubles. Since a such rise in prices of fossil raw materials is not to be expected in the coming years, the demand for growing raw materials will not increase.
Considering the price development of the agrarian raw materials for a industrial applications, one has to bear in mind that the production of food will still be the most important task of agriculture. Against the background of an increasing world population which, according to expert estimations will increase from today 5.6 billion people to approximately 8 billion in 2025, agriculture bears an enormous responsibility for supplying the world's population with high-quality food. This rapid population growth is accompanied with a continuing loss of arable land available for food production goes due to the increasing urbanisation and industrialisation, soil erosion, steppization and salinification: In 1950, 0.51 ha were available for one person, in 2025 only 0,17 ha will be left. Faced with the increasing adjustment of European agrarian prices to the world market prices and the even narrower linking between the prices for growing raw materials and the relatively increasing food prices, also in the domain of primary agricultural production there will be no direct advantage for an increased production of growing raw materials for the time being.
Both factors, prices for fossil resources, which will remain roughly stable in the foreseeable future, and the major obligation of agriculture for food production will limit a rapid development of the industrial application of raw materials made from plants.
Compared with this, there are also factors which will boost the sales potential of growing raw materials: On the one hand, in the past there were agrarian-political measures which resulted in the current extent of cultivation of growing raw materials in Germany. These include, for example, the regulation of the cultivation of growing raw materials on land that is no longer regularly used for agriculture and the regulation for the production remuneration for sugar and starch. The Agenda 2000 and the White Paper of the EU will play a significant role, in particular for the agrarian policy of the EU and thus for the cultivation of growing raw materials. For example, in the White Paper which was introduced by the EU Commission on 8th December 1997, it is aimed for doubling the section of renewable energies from 6% to 12% of the overall energy consumption. In this calculation, biomass will be of decisive importance due to various measures.
A second factor which might have a positive influence on the opportunities of growing raw materials is the research & development in the area of growing raw materials which is supported, in the context of governmental provision politics, by the support of research. This government support must include basic research as well as the market launch of growing raw materials with the help of specific programmes. Faced with the increasing opening of European agrarian policy towards the international market, this research and development will play a very important role: Only thorough research and development will make it possible to develop new and competitive products made of growing raw materials with a high added value. If one does not succeed in establishing products and procedures in this field that are cheaper and more efficient than comparable products made of fossil resources, national supporting programmes and favourable cultivation conditions for growing raw materials will have no avail.
Summing up, it can be stated that the opportunities of growing raw materials in Germany cannot be evaluated without considering the development in the EU and the international markets. No rapid development can be expected; it will rather depend on the stepwise development of products and procedures with high added value which can compete in the long run with products on fossil basis.