Bioeconomy: Growing trend toward sustainability

This transition is driven by increasingly acute pressures from climate change, Net Zero commitments by most major economies by 2050, the need to ensure food security amid a growing global population and increasingly limited land resources, and the explosion in biotechnology, synthetic biology, and artificial intelligence.

At the same time, businesses and governments are under intense pressure to build sustainable supply chains, reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels, and strengthen strategic autonomy over raw materials. The bioeconomy is no longer just an academic concept but has become a central pillar of green growth, job creation, and ecosystem protection.

According to the World Bioeconomy Forum and an analysis by the Boston Consulting Group, the global bioeconomy value currently stands at approximately 4-5 trillion USD and has the potential to increase to 30 trillion USD by 2050, equivalent to about one-third of global GDP. Leading nations and blocs have rapidly perfected national and regional bioeconomy strategies. A prime example is the European Union, which officially announced its new Strategic Framework on a Competitive and Sustainable Bioeconomy on November 27, 2025. This strategy aims to turn the EU into a leading global hub in replacing fossil-based materials and products with biological solutions, focusing on industrial scale, market expansion, competitiveness, and resilience. The EU bioeconomy reached approximately 2.7 trillion EUR in 2023 and employed over 17 million people (about 8% of the bloc's workforce). The new strategy proposes establishing a Bio-based Europe Alliance to mobilize a purchasing commitment of 10 billion EUR for bio-based products by 2030, while simultaneously stepping up investment, simplifying approval procedures, and creating lead markets for biomaterials.

On multilateral forums, the G20 continues to maintain and reinforce its Bioeconomy Initiative with a High-Level Principles Framework comprising 10 voluntary principles, adopted under Brazil's presidency in 2024 and further promoted under subsequent terms. These principles emphasize integrating sustainable development across all three economic, social, and environmental pillars, ensuring food security, inclusivity, and equity (including the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities), climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity conservation, circular use of biological resources, and responsible scientific–technological innovation. These principles are gradually becoming a common reference framework for nations as they formulate national bioeconomy policies.

FAO and international organizations are actively promoting multi-stakeholder partnerships in the bioeconomy to advance sustainable agriculture and food systems. FAO elevated the bioeconomy to a strategic priority in its Strategic Framework 2022-2031 and continues to expand its project portfolio for the 2024-2027 phase, focusing on data and knowledge, partnerships, policy coherence, and the implementation of innovation on the ground. Recent initiatives include promoting global multi-stakeholder partnerships on the bioeconomy for sustainable agrifood systems, cooperating with regional organizations such as ACTO in the Amazon, and supporting countries in building national strategies.

These efforts reflect a growing consensus that the bioeconomy is one of the most important levers for achieving climate goals, ensuring food security, and generating new growth drivers for the 21st century. According to Grand View Research, the global stem cell market reached 15.1 billion USD in 2024, is projected to reach around 16.8 billion USD in 2025, and is expected to rise to 28.9 billion USD by 2030 (CAGR ~11.4%). In the Netherlands, applying biotechnology in breeding and production brought the total export value of all commercial seeds, flowers, and ornamental plants to approximately 12.3 billion EUR in 2025 (≈ 13-13.5 billion USD). The Netherlands controls about 50-60% of the world's cut flower trade.

China and India are among the countries with the longest-standing and largest traditions of medicinal plant research and development globally; in 2025, China's medicinal plant industry reached a scale of approximately 150-160 billion USD. In India, a typical example is Dabur India Limited, recognized as India's largest medicinal plant enterprise, with a history spanning over 140 years. Its flagship products are herbal-based, accounting for about 80% of India's total medicinal plant revenue; the company operates in over 120 countries, with 2025 revenue reaching 1.38 billion USD.

Viet Nam possesses superior natural advantages in biological resources with one of the most diverse ecosystems in the region, including tropical forests, river systems, seas, and abundant agricultural land. This is a vital foundation for developing biomass-based value chains, from agricultural products, medicinal plants, and biological raw materials to ecosystem services. This advantage not only supports traditional agricultural production but also offers immense potential for deep processing, biomaterials, bioenergy, and high–science–and–technology products, aligning with the global transition toward a renewable-resource-based economy.

Vietnamese agriculture has affirmed its strong export standing on the international stage. In 2025, agriculture, forestry, and fishery export turnover exceeded 70 billion USD, surpassing targets and maintaining growth momentum. The goal to elevate turnover to 100 billion USD by 2027 is identified as a central task, requiring a strong transition toward a growth model based on added value, traceability, deep processing, and chain linkages. This represents substantial room to integrate the bioeconomy, converting raw material advantages into higher-value, branded bio-products.

Policy orientations from the Party and State have created a favorable environment for the development of science and technology and related fields. Biotechnology is designated as one of the national strategic technologies. Resolution 36-NQ/TW of the Politburo sets the target that by 2030, Viet Nam will rank among the top 10 leading Asian countries in biotechnology; by 2045, it will become a country with a developed biotechnology sector, contributing 10-15% to GDP. Schemes to develop the bio-industry in the Industry and Trade sector and strategic technology development tasks (including new varieties, vaccines, biological products, cell therapies, etc.) are being implemented in a coordinated manner, laying the foundation for a comprehensive bioeconomy.

Alongside this, Viet Nam is accelerating green transition, circular economy, and carbon market development, creating conditions to link agriculture - forestry - industry with emission reduction and biodiversity conservation goals. The combination of resource advantages, export capacity, and clear policy orientations is opening great opportunities for Viet Nam not only to participate in but also to become a crucial link in regional and global bioeconomy value chains.

In Viet Nam today, many localities and enterprises apply biotechnology, generating massive revenues of regional and international stature. Typical examples include Lam Dong Province, the country's in vitro breeding capital, producing over 74 million plants/year and exporting about 40% of that, valued at around 10.5-11 million USD. Dabaco's (DBC) model is a closed 3F (Feed - Farm - Food) value chain, strongly combining circular economy and biotechnology in livestock farming, with 2025 revenue reaching ~14.9 trillion VND. Da Lat Flower Forest Biotechnology Joint Stock Company applies a closed in vitro breeding model, breeding 20 million plants annually, combining seedling production with agritourism across an area of just 9,000 m², achieving a 2025 revenue of 140 billion VND; the Ngoc Linh Ginseng cultivation model at the Quang Nam Ngoc Linh Ginseng Conservation and Development Cooperative harvests ginseng 7 years after planting, generating revenue of 50 billion VND/ha; DT Group - DT Khanh Hoa Seaweed is the country's largest company in Japanese sea grape production, with nearly 100 hectares of farming water surface, earning 40-50 billion VND/year from sea grapes.

However, to date, Viet Nam has mainly focused its investments and orientation on biotechnology, bio-industry, and the green economy, having not yet developed a comprehensive national strategy for the bioeconomy in its true sense. The commercialization rate of research results remains low, value chains are fragmented, carbon credit and bio-credit markets are not strongly developed, and specialized human resources remain limited. In a global context, aggressively promoting the bioeconomy as a pillar of green growth and strategic autonomy makes identifying and developing it an inevitable requirement, suited to the trends of the era and Viet Nam's specific advantages.

On the basis of continuous scientific research over many years and throughout the process of directing production, we propose the concept:

The bioeconomy is an economy based on the exploitation, usage, regeneration, and sustainable development of biological resources; combining knowledge, science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation to create high-value-added products, services, and business models, driving green growth, circular economic development, reducing dependence on fossil resources, conserving biodiversity, adapting to climate change, and striving toward Net Zero greenhouse gas emission targets.

It can be said that Viet Nam stands before a historic opportunity to transform its abundant biological resource advantages into a sustainable driver of economic growth. Developing a bioeconomy is no longer an option but has become an inevitable requirement to maintain the standing of agricultural, forestry, and fishery exports and to reach the 100-billion-USD target by 2027. Only when scientific and technological knowledge is integrated across the entire value chain, from raw materials to end products, can the country step by step elevate itself from exporting raw materials to higher-value, branded bio-products. The bioeconomy serves as the bridge between natural advantages and green development models, helping conserve ecosystems while generating sustainable economic value. This is a vital path for Viet Nam to affirm its position in the era of the regenerative economy and ensure long-term prosperity for future generations.

$ 1 = VND 26,480 - Source: Vietcombank.