Tuesday, June 16, 2009

RP seeks P20b from Brazil’s ethanol makers


By Othel V. Campos

The government is seeking P20 billion in investments from Brazilian biofuel makers to finance five bio-ethanol distilleries that the government wants to put up in the Philippines, an agriculture official said yesterday.

“We’ll be leaving Friday. We already submitted five proposals to partner with Brazilian ethanol producers for bio-ethanol projects here in the Philippines,” said Philippine Agricultural Development and Commercial Corp. president Marriz Agbon.

Agbon said an ethanol plant coulde cost a minimum of P4 billion “so by rule of thumb, we are eyeing a total of P20-billion investments for bio-ethanol alone.”

The Philippines presented the proposals to select companies who are members of Unica, the Brazilian federation of sugarcane and ethanol manufacturers.

A select group of sugarcane planters will join the Philippine delegation to Brazil as part of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s official entourage.

“This is a specific investment proposal that we submitted to several members of the federation only. We’re hoping to forge joint-venture agreements with these companies,” Agbon said, adding that the P4-billion tag price included a 5-hectare plantation of feedstock and a processing plant of 30 million liters annual capacity.

“Since [Brazilians] are 40 years ahead of us [in bio-ethanol production], we’re hoping to come across a cost-effective arrangement and the use of high-yielding [sugarcane] varieties,” Agbon said.

Agbon said the Philippines had already signed an agreement for agricultural research and commercialization with a Brazilian corporation.

The Philippines expects to sign a technical agreement on the exchange of germplasm of high-yielding sugarcane varieties and technological exchange in high-value crops, specifically mango, coffee and rubber.

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