Bioeconomy innovation within traditional value chains: The example of the sugar industry in three European regions

Innovation is seen as the critical driver of a sustainable bioeconomy, but its success depends on sector specific factors and value chain configurations. The agri-food sector is characterised as being low-tech with a high centralisation of power within the value chain, which might be a barrier to innovation and the implementation of sustainable bioeconomy principles. Based on empirical findings from the sugar industry in three European regions, we argue in this paper that neither a lack of innovation, nor a purely hierarchical implementation of innovations can be unanimously supported. Evidence can be found for biomass producers that are very open to innovation and who are embedded in quite diversified regional knowledge production and diffusion systems. Nevertheless, sustainability concerns do not tend to be the main drivers of innovation in the sugar industry and innovation remains incremental. It is seen as more critical to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and add more value from side streams. As an implicit result, however, the associated innovations also promote the implementation of principles of a sustainable bioeconomy.