The brand, launched this Monday in Pampilhosa da Serra, brings together the various players in the sector in a consortium, with two dozen projects already underway, to place Portugal as a center of sustainable excellence in the global market.
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The resin sector is developing 20 new products in Portugal, borrowing from Latin the expression that gives its name to the new brand launched now, “Resinae”, to value what the Mediterranean pine cluster produces annually and make it a reference in the global market.
This Monday, in Pampilhosa da Serra, specialists, entrepreneurs, producers, and institutional representatives gathered to share perspectives on the challenges and opportunities in a sector that already represents investments of around 26.5 million euros.
From the ForestWISE CoLAB®, a consortium was created that brings together the entire value chain of the sector in Portugal, which is called RN21 and already has 37 partners and 38 lines of research to develop more sustainable and innovative projects with application in the real economy.
The objective is to value the resin as an integrated project and renewable resource, derived from pine forests, predominantly located in the central and northern regions of the country, since its promoters consider it a raw material of “bio” origin with the potential to replace resins of fossil origin in the most diverse industries, from agri-food to textiles, or footwear. The objective is to create a quality seal that implies the use of incorporation of at least 10% of this type of raw material at any stage of the product development cycle.
In addition, it seeks to modernize and make the entire value chain more efficient and sustainable, optimizing the extraction, production and marketing processes, ensuring the ecological and digital transition of the sector, promoting collaboration and integration between different actors, to boost innovation, knowledge sharing and the creation of an environment conducive to the growth and strengthening of activity in the country, which in the past represented more than 145 thousand tons of resin production per year and today it does not exceed 6 thousand tons produced per year.
The consortium supports companies in the sector in diversifying their derived products into bio-based products with higher added value and in the modernization of production processes in order to incorporate new technologies and the adoption of Circular Economy principles.
It also aims to contribute to carbon neutrality and to a more productive and resilient Portuguese forest, through genetic improvement and improvements in resin techniques, with the aim of increasing the production and valorization of sap from Portuguese forests.
It also wants to contribute to territorial cohesion, especially in the regions of the country, where the main areas of resinous pine forest and most of the companies in the sector are concentrated, and to strengthen science and technology, through Research, Development & Innovation activities in companies, in partnership with higher education institutions and entities in the territory and already with partners in Spain, he hopes to soon be able to expand the project to the neighboring country and start winning business in other European countries.
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