Spain to invest $200M in jatropha plantations

A Madrid-based biodiesel firm is planning to invest $200 million to develop at least 100,000 hectares of land into jatropha plantations.

Bionor Transformacion S.A. (Bionor), a well-established global multi-feedstock company, plans to invest in the biofuel sector after signing a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between AME Bionergy Corp. and the Philippine Agricultural Development and Commercial Corp. (PADCC).

AME, which was appointed the key integrator for Bionor in the Philippines, is tasked to identify suitable jatropha plantation sites, consolidate lands, organize and train farm labor, and use appropriate cultivation and agronomic practices. It will organize local support to install plantation infrastructure, and study the cost structure for production to determine and recommend to Bionor whether its planned jatropha development project is economically viable and internationally competitive.

PADCC will assist AME in these aspects and will mobilize the resources of the line agencies and bureaus of the Department of Agriculture (DA) as well as financial institutions to help realize Bionor's plans.

The Department of Agriculture said Bionor wants to develop feedstock plantations worldwide using raw materials that do not compete with the food sector and do not lead to deforestation.

Bionor currently operates two biodiesel plants in Spain and Italy with a combined output of 125,000 metric tons (MTs) and constructing an additional five plants in Spain and Brazil that will add an additional 900,000 MT of capacity in 2008 and in the first quarter 2009. That should increase its combined capacity in early 2009 to over a million MT of methyl ester.

Last year, the Philippines exported a total of 24,425 MT of agricultural products to Spain worth $20 million. The country's top agricultural exports to Spain were coconut oil ($7.9 million), carageenan ($2.18 million), canned pineapple/juice ($2.6 million), tobacco ($1.06 million), desiccated coconut ($0.9 million), and tuna ($1.3 million).