Philipp Steiner

Leading the team that is starting-up Bioeconomy Developments NPC (“BioEcoDev”) whose mission is the preparation and implementation of small rural projects or businesses in the agriculture and forestry sectors. By definition, the bioeconomy encompasses the production of renewable biological resources and their conversion into food, feed, biobased products and bioenergy via innovative and efficient technologies. On the one side, South Africa is one of the world’s most biologically diverse country and on the other side, we have a significant rate of unemployment. The team at BioEcoDev is commited to put people into jobs by creating projects or enterprises. What ever BioEcoDev does, its success is measured by the solutions we find for or impact we have on: Society (especially with regard to employment of women and youth), - Environment (e.g. climate change mitigation, water/resources efficiencies) and - Food security. The bioeconomy is not only in its infancy in South Africa, but also at an early stages of development in the rest of Africa and the world. These "grassroots" developments offer a unique opportunity to include and empower subsistence farmers so they can benefit from economic value chains.

Leading a team that is developing practical, web-based solutions to connect the dots of agri-business value chains. Examples: - Biomass.Market™ (incorporating Cob.Trade™) biomass trading, logistics and information platform. - Veggies.Market™: Vegetable trading and information platform for small-scale farmers.