Brazil sees wide LatAm ethanol production soon

02 March 2007 18:14  [Source: ICIS news]

ARLINGTON, Virginia (ICIS news)--Brazil expects to see widespread ethanol production throughout Latin America over the next several years and is working toward an ethanol commodity market, a top Brazilian government official said on Friday.

 

Elisio Contini, head of the strategic management office for Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture, told the annual US Department of Agriculture outlook forum that “with the help of other countries, Brazil plans to transform ethanol into a great global commodity”.

 

According to US officials, the US and Brazil are close to concluding an ethanol research and development (R&D) agreement that will include mutual efforts to stimulate biobased ethanol production in multiple Latin American nations.

 

Contini said Brazil wants wide-scale ethanol production in Latin America because it sees a need for “a free international market in agro-energy products” in part because Brazil anticipates that it will need to import ethanol in the future. 

 

As Brazilian automotive consumption of ethanol continues to grow, Contini said that with possible fluctuations in his country’s sugar cane crop, its ethanol feedstock, “we may need to import ethanol from time to time”.  Brazil now commits 51% of its annual sugar cane crop to ethanol production.

 

He said the Brazilian government is already providing technical assistance and advice to other Latin American countries that want to develop or accelerate ethanol production.

 

“We receive every week delegations from other Latin American countries looking for help in developing bio-energy,” Contini said.

 

He said Brazil cannot afford to provide any financial aid to other Latin American countries’ ethanol development efforts, but he noted that the International Development Bank and other multinational bank organizations are funding biofuels work in Central and South America.

 

“We hope to see in the next two or three years considerable development of ethanol production in Latin America,” he said.

By: Joe Kamalick
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