3rd regional workshop in Flanders on the 7th of November 2022

Flanders was the first RUSTICA region to organise the 3rd multi-stakeholder workshop with 14 attendees involved in different parts of the bio-based fertiliser (BBF) value chain including farmers associations, policy makers, research institutes, and waste stream managing companies.

The workshop was led by Eigen Vermogen van het Instituut voor Landbouw- en Visserijonderzoek (EV ILVO) and took place in Leuven.

The workshop day started with an introduction to the goals of the workshop and an update about the status of the testing of the blends and upcoming trials. Next, we discussed a Regional legal summary related to development of bio-based fertilisers. We did a round table so everyone could share their struggles. Struggles mentioned were related to getting the right permits and insects being regarded as animal by-product. Next, attendees could network with each other during a coffee break. We continued the workshop with a business model robustness check exercise. The business model for Flanders made by RUSTICA partners was explained and compared to the current situation. The RUSTICA business model for Flanders was based on research and input from stakeholders gathered during the previous two workshops. After the explanation of the business model, we did a robustness check of the model by discussing the impact of two stress factors on each of the components of the model. The two stress factors used were picked out by the stakeholders out of a long list of factors, after a round of voting. The stress factors chosen were: ‘what if regulation facilitated, promoted and prioritised the use of organic wastes to produce BBF?’ and ‘what if the need for additional investment was high to produce BBF, while prices for BBF compared to mineral fertiliser were similar?’

After a second networking break, four policy brief drafts were handed out to stakeholders. They were asked to pick one out depending on which topic they felt most comfortable with. Next, they were asked to read that policy brief and comment on it.

At the end of the workshop, we asked stakeholders to keep us informed if they would come across events or projects that could link with RUSTICA and to fill in a short evaluation form.

All stakeholders stated in the evaluation that they want to attend a next workshop, and some gave specific input for content discussed in the future workshops: more information on the legal framework and estimates on BBF costs were mentioned.

The Flemish RUSTICA-partners are grateful for the contributions made by external stakeholders during the workshop. We hope that stakeholders used the opportunity to get to know others in the sector who were previously unknown to them. We wish to welcome each one of them again in one of our following workshops.