Towards A Legume Renaissance (The Protein Project)

This report contains an executive summary, which is reproduced here exactly as requested.

Executive summary

Europe's food system confronts four interconnected crises: declining strategic autonomy, rising health burdens, environmental degradation and persistently low farm incomes. Our growing dependence on imported protein and fertilisers leaves us vulnerable to geopolitical volatility. Diet-related diseases impose mounting healthcare costs while intensive agricultural practices degrade soil, reduce biodiversity, and drive carbon emissions. At the same time, many farmers struggle to make a decent living, with narrow margins and high volatility. The European Union cannot address these challenges through business as usual. Systemic transformation is required—one that restores profitability, resilience, and health to our farms and communities.

Legumes can address these four crises, and fava beans show particular promise as a catalyst. Fava beans are Europe's oldest cultivated legume and part of our shared food heritage—trusted by Charlemagne, who mandated their cultivation across his empire—yet their potential has been largely overlooked in recent decades. These versatile crops serve both food and feed markets. As protein crops, they strengthen strategic autonomy by fixing nitrogen in the soil, reducing the need for chemical inputs and providing high-quality local proteins for feed. They strengthen public health through fibre-rich, nutritious protein for food. They regenerate soils, reduce emissions, and restore biodiversity, addressing environmental degradation. Finally, they can strengthen farmer income through diversified rotations and higher-margin production—as demonstrated by innovative farmers across the EU who have built profitable businesses around fava beans.

Despite substantial growth over the past 60 years in the EU, fava beans’ potential remains largely untapped, stuck in the downward spiral of a minor crop. Fava beans face underinvestment, fragmented markets, underexplored processing, and insufficient demand. These constraints create a vicious cycle where low profitability discourages farmers from scaling production, which in turn limits investment in infrastructure and market development. Breaking this cycle requires coordinated action across the entire value chain.

This sectoral roadmap charts a path to develop a competitive fava bean sector that supports all actors across the value chain. It was developed with 20 value chain actors and 60+ experts. Overall, it identifies key challenges and the structural solutions needed to support the development of the value chain (see page 4). Crucially, it links these to policy recommendations in key files such as the CAP, CMO, NRP, Competitiveness Fund, Horizon Europe, etc. It then quantifies the impact of these solutions on farmer income (Figure 1), total production (Figure 2), and the EU’s strategic priorities—autonomy, health, and environment (Figure 3).

Implementing the recommendations of this roadmap would create a strong business case for farmers without perpetual subsidy dependence. Today, fava bean cultivation can be profitable in certain cases: fresh fava beans or high-quality food-grade beans. However, this profitability is too often constrained by market limitations and quality issues, limiting the number of farmers benefiting from it. When the strategic outcomes are reached, we expect fava beans to be profitable for both food and feed uses across the EU well before 2040 (Figure 1). While a strong, stand-alone business case for farmers and other actors of the value chain is achievable through targeted, coordinated investment, start-up support will be needed to de-risk operations for farmers, covering the temporary loss in revenue from the adoption of new practices.

To ensure farmer profitability, steady growth in demand for food and feed is needed. The roadmap projects that fava bean consumption could double by 2040. Growth would be relatively equal across food and feed sectors, leading to an increased share of fava beans for human consumption—translating to approximately one fava bean serving per person per day. This overall expansion would be driven by growth in both food and feed sectors, accelerated by public procurement commitments, targeted promotion campaigns, and strengthened feed supply chains. Achieving this balance between supply support and demand creation is critical to ensuring sector development.

Scaling fava beans production and consumption across the EU would generate significant benefits spanning strategic autonomy, public health, and environmental sustainability. The impact analysis, shown in the roadmap's impact framework, demonstrates quantifiable gains across multiple dimensions. Strategic autonomy improves as Europe reduces dependence on imported synthetic fertilisers and protein meals, protecting our food system from price volatility and geopolitical risk. Public health benefits arise from increased fibre consumption, with avoided healthcare costs from diet-related disease prevention. Environmental gains emerge through reduced pesticide use and CO2 emission savings from rebalancing the protein mix. These benefits create a compelling case for action that extends far beyond individual farm profitability.

This is the moment for the legume renaissance in Europe. The policies required are within reach. Market appetite exists among consumers, retailers, and food & feed producers. The approaches are proven through farmer examples across the EU. Investment frameworks are available through existing programmes. What is required is deliberate, coordinated action that recognises the long-term nature of agricultural investment and the imperative of value chain collaboration. The coming decade will determine whether European agriculture embraces this transformation. The choice, and the opportunity, are ours to seize.