LATEST NEWS
Philippines to import ethanol
10th April, 2008
While imports are a temporary measure, the Philippines expects to produce 2.256 million tonnes of raw sugar this year
The ethanol imports would be a temporary measure, as the Philippines will boost capacity to meet its domestic needs within the next five years.
The Philippine government had passed a biofuel act in 2007 that made it mandatory to mix 5% of ethanol in petrol from February 2009.
'It will translate into 200 million litres of ethanol a year,' Archie Amarra, executive director of Philippines Sugar Millers Association, comments. 'Our production capacity is not much. We have one ethanol plant with capacity of 30 million litres a year.'
The government has made it mandatory to mix 10% ethanol in petrol by 2011.
The Philippines expect to produce 2.26 million tonnes of raw sugar in the current sugar year that started in September 2007.
The country, which consumes about 2 million tonnes of sugar a year, produced 2.24 million tonnes of raw sugar in the previous year.
