Mozambique's sugar cane to be used in making ethanol

Wednesday, 15 April 2009

 

Foreign companies have invested about $710 million in Mozambique to produce an annual 440 million litres of ethanol a from sugar cane.

Roberto Albino, director of Mozambique's Centre for Agricultural Promotion (Cepagri), said that 48,000 hectares has been set aside for the production of sugar cane across six provinces.

"The money is coming from three foreign companies, ProCana, Principle Energy and Groun Resources," he said.

ProCana has an investment agreement with Mozambique's government ethanol plant.

Principle Energy is a renewables energy company in which London-listed fund manager Principle Capital has a significant undisclosed stake.

The projects could generate as many as 7,000 and 10,000 jobs.

Mozambique approved biofuel projects using ethanol as the primary source in 2007.

Cepagri has various proposals for ethanol production from cane sugar and sorghum under consideration throughout Mozambique.

"If all projects were approved it would mean by 2020 an area of between 80,000 and 130,000 hectares would be under cultivation producing between 835 million and 1.6 billion litres of ethanol a year", Albino said.

The government has received other proposals to produce ethanol from sugar cane but also from millet.

Most of this ethanol would be exported to the European Union.

Last month, Mozambique drafted a strategy for the production of biofuels from the drought-resistant jatropha crop, which contains up to 40 percent oil.

Jatropha is a non-food crop whose oil can be used to produce biodiesel. It can be grown on semi-arid land and its proponents say it poses less of a threat to food production than other biofuel feedstocks such as grains and vegetable oils.

The government said it has received requests to open up more than five million hectares of land for the production of bio-diesel, with coconuts, sunflowers and the weed-like jatropha plant being tested as possible feedstock.

Reuters