ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain.
Sec. Circular Economy
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frsus.2025.1490685
Qualitative comparative analysis of cross-sectoral bioresource residue flows from agriculture, forestry and aquaculture: the crucial role of non-biobased sectors in the development of circular bioeconomy
Provisionally accepted
Pia Piroschka Otte1*
Anda Adamsone-Fiskovica2
Oksana Žabko2
Kristiina Kerge3
Sandra Šūmane2
Svetlana Shvaichenko2
Armands Veveris4
Diana Mincyte5- 1Institute for Rural and Regional Research (RURALIS), Trondheim, Norway
- 2Baltic Studies Centre, Riga, Latvia
- 3Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Tartu County, Estonia
- 4Institute of Agricultural Resources and Economics, Riga, Latvia
- 5Vilnius University, Vilnius, Vilnius, Lithuania
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Primary production sectors of the bioeconomy – agriculture, forestry, and aquaculture (AFA) – have a significant role in the transition towards the circular economy (CE). Their generated residues can be transformed into renewable biomass resources that serve as an input in the production processes within AFA and other sectors. Valorization of residues in new value-added products and development of new value chains often require cross-sectoral collaboration. In this paper, we use the conceptual framework of industrial symbiosis and identify patterns and test selected influencing factors of cross-sectoral flows of bioresource residues generated in AFA. We apply a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to perform a comparative analysis of 107 circular initiatives in the biobased sectors in five countries – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Ukraine. We focus on the (i) sectors involved in the flow of bioresource residues, (ii) companies' motivation to initiate circular flows, and (iii) type of bioresource residues used. The analysis of these factors reveals three pathways leading to cross-sectoral flow of bioresource residues: a combination of agriculture with a non-AFA sector (such as energy, food, and feed industries); a combination of aquaculture with the absence of forestry; and a combination of forestry with the absence of aquaculture. Motivational factors such as revenues and legal requirements were not confirmed as decisive for cross-sectoral resource flows. The results show that non-AFA sectors appear central in the development of industrial symbiosis for the circular bioeconomy, and collaboration between AFA and non-AFA sectors needs to be expanded for a better valorization of bioresource residues.
Keywords: Circular economy, industrial symbiosis, Qualitative Comparative Analysis, bioeconomy, Agriculture, Aquaculture, Forestry
Received: 03 Sep 2024; Accepted: 05 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Otte, Adamsone-Fiskovica, Žabko, Kerge, Šūmane, Shvaichenko, Veveris and Mincyte. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Pia Piroschka Otte, pia.otte@ruralis.no
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