Peru's Garcia seeks limit on food crops for fuels

22 April 2008 00:36  [Source: ICIS news]

CARACAS (ICIS news)--President Alan Garcia of Peru on Monday called on industrialized nations to "prudently limit" the amount of agricultural lands converted to biofuel production, saying the practice is dangerously exacerbating hunger and poverty in developing nations.

The decision by developed nations to cultivate food for energy has prompted a "brutal" increase in basics such a wheat, corn and soya and has severely impacted developing nations such as Peru, said President Garcia during the inauguration of a natural gas filling station operated by Clean Energy.

"We believe there are energy alternatives that don't endanger the world's food supply," he said in Spanish. "All that we're doing is condemning a quarter of humanity to hunger."

Attending the President's address was Energy Minister Juan Valdivia who earlier this year called on the agriculture ministry to speed up approvals for companies requesting permission to grow crops for fuel on uncultivated land.

Legal mandates to increase the percentage of renewable fuels in the nation's diesel supply and a free trade agreement with the US has prompted an outpouring of interest from local and international investors into Peru's rapidly emerging biofuels sector.

Peru expects the sector to attract over $100m (€640m) in private investment this year.

Most of those investments are targeting projects using sugar cane, palm oil and jatropha, which isn't a part of the food chain, to produce ethanol and biodiesel.

($1=€0.64)

 

For more on biofuels visit ICIS chemical intelligence

 

For some independent thinking on biofuels, bookmark Simon Robinson's Big Biofuels Blog

By: Jasmina Kelemen
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