International cooperation is boosting reed utilisation
The BalticReed project will harvest reed in 12 areas along coastlines in mainland Finland, the Åland Islands and Sweden. It will also organise training and workshops for companies interested in harvesting and utilising reeds.
In cooperation with industrial companies, harvesters, farmers and others stakeholders, the project is aiming to remove bottlenecks in reed utilisation, such as in logistics. The project is encouraging companies to develop products from reeds, as this is still a underutilised material.
Summer harvested reed is used in Finland as agricultural soil improvers and as a raw materials for substrates. However, harvesting reed is quite high in costs. In order for the reed value chain to generate higher economical viability, we need to find higher value-added uses for them. The BalticReed project will be organising training and workshops for existing and future harvesting entrepreneurs and other companies that have ideas for utilising reed.
In the Baltic countries, the use of reeds is established in a range of consumer products, such as roofs and building boards. The project is therefore arranging joint field trips to Estonia for Finnish, Swedish and Åland operators. Workshops is also organised for municipalities and reed bed landowners.
The partners in the project are the ELY Centre for Southwest Finland, Arcada University of Applied Sciences, the Government of Åland, the County Administrative Board of Östergötland, and Race for the Baltic. The project is being funded by the EU’s INTERREG Central Baltic programme, which finances cross-border cooperation projects to improve the state of coastal and marine environment.
Read more:
https://johnnurmisensaatio.fi/en/our-work/projects/balticreed/
https://centralbaltic.eu/project/balticreed/
