This webinar will explore the complete value chain of guayule, a climate-resilient crop poised to transform underutilised marginal lands in Southern Europe into sources of sustainable rubber and other high-value bio-based materials. From the fields of Spain and France to the factory floor, this session will showcase the latest results in cultivation, harvesting downstream processing of guayule biomass for natural rubber, latex and other bio-based products. An expert panel discussion will discuss the strategic pathway from research to value chain deployment and market uptake.
What you will learn:
- Cultivation of guayule on marginal land. Discover our demo sites in Spain, where MIDAS partners are growing guayule with innovative farming systems in marginal agricultural land
- Production of high value products: Learn about the current research pilots and industrial initiatives for the production of natural rubber, latex, resins, and other compounds.
- Market uptake: What are the market opportunities, the challenges and the solutions to building a thriving resilient European value chain.
Preliminary agenda
Introduction
MIDAS project at glance – Marginal lands and industrial crops for the European bioeconomy
Maurizio Cocchi – ETA Florence, Efthymia Alexopoulous – CRES
Guayule as specialty crop for marginal land – experiences with cultivation in central Spain
Almudena Olivas del Rey – Instituto Técnico Agronómico Provincial de Albacete
Mechanization and harvesting of guayule
Simone Bergonzoli – CREA-IT
Exploitation of guayule co-products: rubber, resins, essential oil and other high value products
Manuel Carmona Delgado – Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha
Europe’s first guayule latex: scaling the biorefinery and valorizing co-products
Michel Dorget – GuaTecs
Panel discussion: Building and deploying a complete value chain: industry experiences, market opportunities, challenges and solutions
Juha Pirhonen – Nokian Tyres, Adam McCarthy – Tyres Europe
