Latvia

Latvia is a country by the Baltic Sea covering area of 64 589 km2, with a population of 1 875 757 (2022) inhabitants. Baltic coastline is approximately 498 km long. Since the beginning of the previous century the forest area in Latvia has almost doubled, reaching 3,4 milion ha (53% from the total area of the country). In total, 127.83 thousand citizens were employed in the bioeconomy sectors in 2022 in Latvia.

Bioeconomy Policy Framework

In Latvia, three main organizations are responsible for bioeconomy policy development – Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for agriculture, forestry, fisheries, rural development, veterinary and food, in other words, the primary sector. The Ministry of Science and Education works to provide the necessary research potential in the sector and the Ministry of Economics together with the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia are responsible for the development of added value, working on the innovation framework and attracting investment. As takes up a large part of Latvia’s whole economy, there are various public and academic institutions that are involved in developing policy.

Current bioeconomy strategies and development trends

The Latvian bioeconomy strategy was adopted in 2017 and since 2022 Latvian public, private and academic sectors are joined in a steering group, led by the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia, to create and implement a knowledge-intensive Bioeconomy strategy and action plan focusing on innovations.

visit the Latvian HUB

Sustainable Circular Bioeconomy HUB, managed by the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, primarily focuses on support for the bioeconomy policymaking process and enhancing Latvia’s broader involvement in international bioeconomy-related research projects. Our Contact Person is Anna Vitola.

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Bioeconomy related projects

  • VIOBOND – The VIOBOND consortium aims to take essential commercialization steps based on the natural wood component lignin, creating industrial technologies to significantly reduce the share of fossil raw materials in phenol formaldehyde resin, which is widely used in various everyday products.
  • BOOST4BIOEAST – Boosting the bioeconomy transformation for the BIOEAST macro-region.
  • ZEST – Valorization of Agro-Industrial waste through fungi fermentation supported by digital modeling EAFRD financed project “Use of residue-free forestry biomass for the production of environmentally friendly plant protection products and soil additives”.
  • EGGshell – Waste-to-resource: eggshells as a source for next generation biomaterials for bone regeneration

National contact point

National Contact Point for the BIOEAST initiative in Latvia is the Ministry of Agriculture (Elīna Lāce). Ministry of Agriculture mainly works with policy making for primary production, however, you can reach out to these representatives on all matters bioeconomy as they will try to redirect you to your point of interest!

Address

Republikas Laukums 2, Centra rajons, Rīga, LV-1010, Latvia

Contact

Elina.Lace@zm.gov.lv

anna.vitola-helviga@lbtu.lv

Useful links

VIOBOND

ZEST

EAFRD

EGGshell