Biofuels group tells Brazil to keep ethanol out of EU - VIDEO

24 March 2010 16:28  [Source: ICIS news]

SAO PAULO (ICIS new)--Europe needs to develop its own production of biofuels and not rely on imports of ethanol from Brazil to meet its renewable fuels targets, the European Bioethanol Fuel Association (eBio) said on Wednesday.

“Don't send your ethanol to Europe...we don't need it,”  said e-Bio director Robert Vierhout during a presentation at FO Licht’s Sugar and Ethanol Brazil 2010 in Sao Paulo (see video below).

The remark echoed a statement Vierhout made in 2009, when he said Brazil should think beyond its own market during a conference hosted by Brazilian sugarcane industry association Unica.

The statement last year drew an immediate reaction by Unica, which said e-Bio was fundamentally wrong on trade.

Unica has waged a fierce campaign against trade barrier imposed by the US and Europe, but Vierhout has downplayed that, saying at an industry event last month that Brazil already has access to every market and holds 50% of the international trade.

Europe must develop its industry rather than replace imports of fossil fuel with imports of ethanol, the e-Bio official said.

It is also an agricultural issue and a matter of promoting technological development in Europe, he said on the sidelines of the conference.

Brazil accounts for the bulk of global ethanol trade, but the country cannot meet global demand on its own, Vierhout said.

Europe plans to replace 10% of its fossil fuel consumption with renewable fuels by 2020.

The 2010 Sugar and Ethanol Brazil conference opened on Tuesday. The two-day event was organised in partnership with IBC Brasil.

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By: William Lemos
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