•The in-person event, held yesterday, April 22, connected European technological innovation with the sustainability challenges of Colombia’s agricultural ecosystem
•International experts demonstrated how to transform coffee grounds into high-value resources, such as biocides and animal feed, through projects funded by the European Union
•The European delegation from Finnova and the ECOFFEE consortium will continue their agenda in Ibagué today with strategic meetings to reinforce opportunities for transatlantic cooperation
Ibagué (Colombia), April 23, 2026. Yesterday, Wednesday, April 22, the Finnova Foundation and the European ECOFFEE consortium successfully held the “EU-LAC International Meeting on Bioeconomy and Coffee” in the city of Ibagué (Tolima). The event, organized within the framework of the Glocal Circular Economy Summit, achieved its objective of building bridges between European technology transfer and Colombian social and territorial innovation. Following the strong reception of the event, the international delegation will remain in the city today to continue establishing in-person synergies with local stakeholders, entrepreneurs, and representatives from the productive and public sectors.
The meeting was opened and moderated by Juanma Revuelta, CEO of Finnova, who outlined the strategic context and the opportunities offered by the European Green Deal for producing regions. Revuelta highlighted the sector’s enormous potential: “We are going to demonstrate that coffee does not end in the cup: its waste can become biocides, animal feed, and, above all, a major opportunity for business and sustainability.”
European technology transferred to Latin America
One of the central pillars of the event was the presentation of the European ECOFFEE project, funded by Horizon Europe, which demonstrated its potential to be replicated in Latin America. Carlos Ramos, Operations Manager at FumiHogar, detailed the model for valorizing coffee waste, including applied logistics, the production of biocides and animal feed, and the innovative dry micro-dispersion technology also developed במסגרת the LIFE NextFUMIGREEN project.
Territorial vision and social innovation
The local and regional perspective was provided by Luis Betancourt, Director of the Technical Agency for Investment and International Cooperation of Ibagué, who outlined the challenges of profitability, efficiency, and sustainability faced by the agricultural sector in the region.
Meanwhile, Viviana Narváez, Administrative Manager and Social Innovation Leader at Tecnicafé, emphasized the importance of training and knowledge transfer within the coffee ecosystem. She highlighted the commitment to regenerative agriculture and summarized her transformative vision with a powerful message: “We transform beans into knowledge and people into agents of change.”
Going beyond borders, Lorena Rodríguez, lecturer at the Amazonian University of Ecuador (IKIAM), presented business innovation opportunities based on the Amazon bioeconomy. Rodríguez showcased tangible triple-impact success stories, such as extracting nanocellulose from agricultural waste to create eco-friendly 3D printing filaments, or developing ecological bricks using natural fibers, concluding that: “The Amazon does not need more extraction; it needs more transformation.”
International funding as a driver of change
To bring these innovations to life, the event concluded with a session on cooperation and project structuring led by Juan Viesca, Director of European Funds at Finnova. Viesca detailed financing tools, placing particular emphasis on the AL-INVEST Verde Sustainable Coffee program, which has a total budget of €37.7 million. He also reviewed the scope of other major European Union programs such as LIFE, Interreg, Erasmus+, and Horizon Europe, reminding attendees that “cooperation between Europe and Latin America is the foundation for accessing funding and generating real impact.”
The meeting concluded with a dynamic open debate and networking sessions, laying the groundwork for future institutional and business collaborations. As Juanma Revuelta stated in his closing remarks: “Today we have demonstrated that cooperation between the European Union and Latin America is not just a theory on paper; it is real technology, tangible funding, and people working together.”