The president of the Board of Extremadura, María Guardiola, has visited the Nation factory in Hervás (Cáceres), where she has been able to verify the progress of the Sustainext project. This initiative will transform the Cácereño production center into the most efficient, sustainable and innovative plant extractor biofactority in the world.
After being received by the company’s CEO, Antonio Delgado, and Vice President José Carlos Quintela, the Extremadura leader has traveled the Nation’s facilities accompanied by the mayor of Hervás, Gloria de los Santos, and the Minister of Economy, Employment and Digital Transformation, Guillermo Santamaría, among other local and regional authorities.
To the visit, the Commissioner for the Circular Economy of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (Miteco), Alejandro Dorado, and the Executive Director of the Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (Cbe Ju), Nicoló Giacomuzzi, have also joined the visit.
During his visit, Guardiola has been able to know first hand the process of extraction of plants with which natural ingredients of the highest quality are obtained, as well as the expansion work that is being carried out and that will allow NATAC to reinforce their capacity and efficiency.
At the end of the tour, the president of Extremadura has praised that Nation chose the Extremadura region to establish its production center. “I could have chosen anywhere, but has chosen Extremadura and that is why we are very proud. Because Extremadura offers everything a company needs to grow. ” In addition, he stressed that the expansion project “is a pioneer. We have a biorefinery that is doing is transforming agricultural waste into compounds of high added value. ”
For its part Antonio DelgadoCEO of Nation, said that “the Substainext project consolidates our strategy to embrace circular bioeconomy as a sustainable business model. This initiative we lead is a sample of our commitment to the economic and social development of Extremadura. ”
The mayor of Hervás, Gloria de los Santos, has highlighted “how important it is for a municipality as you have to have a company like Nation. Our firm purpose has been, and will continue to be helping in everything in our hand to continue growing, because that will result in the benefit of Hervás and the entire Ambroz Valley. ”
From the CBE-JU, its executive director, Nicoló Giacomuzzi, has highlighted the importance, in projects of this size, of the strategic alliances between the public and private sector “because it creates the critical mass at European, national, regional and local level to achieve a real impact of the circular bioeconomy of the Member States of the European Union.” Promoting this type of alliances based on science, research and access to the market are fundamental to enhance this type of alliances, he said.
Finally, the commissioner for the circular economy, Alejandro Dorado, has emphasized that “projects such as that of Sustainext show how the ecological transition, through decarbonization, circularity or conservation and restoration of ecosystems, is an opportunity agenda. An environmental need, such as reducing the impacts of our unsustainable linear model of production and consumption, becomes an economic opportunity for the competitiveness of this region, for employment and for territorial cohesion. ”