The Danube – a stream of energy: This was the motto of the two-day Danube Business Talks 2018 organized by the ENERGY BARGE partners viadonau and Port of Vienna in Vienna.

© BioCampus Straubing GmbH

On the first day full of political topics on the role of the Danube as a logistical and touristic axis in Europe, a so called Draft Findings Paper and declarations of the European Barge Union, European Skippers Organisation, Pro Danube International and Pro Danube Austria were handed over to Austria’s Minister of Transport, Norbert Hofer, and the representative of the European Commission, Désirée Oen. Austria is currently having the chair at the EU transport ministers round due to the Austrian EU presidency. A joint port tour organised by the ENERGY BARGE partner Port of Vienna including a dinner cruise concluded the first day.

The second day focussed on new business relations. In four expert presentations, the companies Agrana, Münzer, Bulmarket and Port of Rotterdam presented their biobased energy businesses as well as their logistics systems. The key message was: if we take the Paris agreement and European climate goals seriously, bioenergy and biobased economy will have to play a decisive role. To this end, political actions such as a CO2 tax could be suitable measures.

For bigger processing sites, functioning logistics are of predominant importance. For Agrana, Münzer and Bulmarket, the Danube already is an important logistics backbone for feedstock and for products. But only if the Danube logistics services are accessible all year round, the supply can be guaranteed. Here, the speakers identified clear challenges. After a brief panel round, the audience moved to the ENERGY BARGE B2B matchmaking event organised by viadonau. Scheduled in advance via an online tool, actors along the supply chains could book brief 15-minute business dates with potential partners of interest to facilitate first contacts.

© BioCampus Straubing GmbH

The next ENERGY BARGE business-to-business meeting will take place in Bratislava, Slovakia, on 22 November 2018. More information will follow soon.