Brazil food crops, forest safe from ethanol

02 July 2008 22:47  [Source: ICIS news]

PIRACICABA, Brazil (ICIS news)--Brazil’s food crops and its large rainforest will remain unscathed by the country’s booming ethanol industry even if Brazil produced five times more ethanol than it does now, an industry official said on Wednesday.

“Brazil could produce 100bn litres/year of ethanol without using protected land or taking land away from other crops,” said Jose de Godoy, president of APLA, a Brazilian ethanol advocacy group.

Brazil in 2007 produced about 20bn litres of ethanol.

Godoy said one of the main challenges the Brazilian ethanol industry is facing is the “misperception” in Europe and in the US that Brazil is using the Amazon forest to grow sugarcane.

“The Amazon is unfit for sugarcane,” he said, adding that Brazil would need to use less than 7% of its arable land to produce 100bn litres/year of ethanol.

Fears that Brazil will export less soybean and corn because of increased ethanol production were also misguided, Godoy told journalists during an industry event in Piracicaba, Brazil.

“Brazil’s annual grain production has grown by 10% on average in recent years even though ethanol production was also booming,” he said.

Brazil now uses 15% of its land to grow soybean and 12% to plant corn, according to industry sources

Godoy spoke to ICIS news during the 2008 SIMTEC, an annual sugar and ethanol industry technology exhibition.

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By: William Lemos
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