For Gelderland, long-term local value chains help connect farm income, soil quality and lower-emission material choices. The analysis places agriculture within a wider land-use transition: farmers can produce food, fibres and other biobased inputs while keeping more value in the region.
The emphasis on long-term matters. Chains for biobased materials need years of coordinated development across growing, processing, certification and demand before they run reliably. Short funding cycles and one-off pilots rarely build that continuity. For regional policy, the insight is to organise commitment across the whole chain — so that farmers, processors and builders can invest knowing that the demand and infrastructure will still be there when their investments start to pay off.