São Paulo –Mozambique, in Africa, is going to produce ethanol from sugarcane. This information was disclosed by news agency Panapress and, according to the organisation, the project for production of ethanol, to cost US$ 280 million, was approved by the government of Mozambique last week.
Production will be in the hands of company Mozambique Principle Energy, with Mozambican and Mauritian capital. The project forecasts the initial cultivation of sugarcane on 18,000 hectares of land. Production of ethanol should reach 213 million litres by 2013, from 2.5 million tonnes of sugarcane.
The project should be executed in Manica, in the centre of the country, in the city of Sussundega, according to an article published by Lusa – the Portuguese News Agency. The organisation goes on to add that the ethanol should be distributed in the African market and also to other parts of the world. The forecast is that 120 tonnes of cane should be harvested per hectare.
The project also forecasts the generation of energy. Mozambique Principle Energy, according to Lusa, plans to build a hydroelectric power plant in the same district and with a generation capacity of 82.5 megawatts a year. Around 20% of the energy should be turned to the production of ethanol and the remains should be sold.
The water to be used in the ethanol project should come from the Lucite River. The company has agreed to bring benefits to the communities that live in the region, with the construction, for example, of a bridge over the Lucite and other infrastructure works, according to Panapress.
The government of Mozambique hopes that the project may also contribute to the National Treasury, with the generation of US$ 57 million in taxes up to 2011, which should rise to US$ 119 million by 2012 and to US$ 114 million in the following year. The project already has US$ 70 million of its own capital and plans to collect another US$ 90 million in an Initial Public Offering. The rest should come from bank loans.
Last year, the government of Mozambique approved another project for the production of ethanol, denominated Procana, which involves the plantation of 30,000 hectares of sugarcane in the south of the country. The investor is Central African Mining and Exploration Company (Camec), headquartered in London, known for its copper and cobalt mining in the Congo.
*Translated by Mark Ament
