São Paulo – The Arab countries are among the leading export targets for bio-energy company Tropical Bioenergia, a plant headquartered in the city of Edéia, in the state of Goiás. Approximately 30% of all sugar exported by the company is shipped to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Morocco and Kuwait, which have been customers of the company since 2008. The remainder of the company’s foreign sales is shipped to Russia, Indonesia, Nigeria, China and India.
The plant’s entire sugar production is exported by means of large trading companies that operate in the sugar market. The ethanol is sold on the domestic market, mainly by states in the Brazilian Mid-South and Northeast, but the company has future plans of exporting the product.
"Currently, the main market for Brazilian ethanol is the domestic one, due to the implementation of bi-fuel vehicles, from 2003 onwards. The United States, Europe, Japan and Korea are markets that consume ethanol, but are still protectionist, and that makes it harder for us to export," claims Eduardo Souza, the trader in charge of sales and logistics at Tropical. "In the future, the more the markets open up, the greater the worldwide need for biofuels will be, and then we will be able to export ethanol too," he finished off.
Tropical Bioenergia is located in the southwest of the state of Goiás, 180 kilometres away from the capital Goiânia, and generates 950 direct jobs. The plant produces 2 million tonnes of sugarcane per crop, resulting in approximately 130,000 tonnes of sugar and 150,000 cubic metres of ethanol.
The plant was established by the Santelisa Vale and Maeda groups in September 2006, and two years ago, the British Petrol (BP) group purchased a 50% stake in it. The company paid 100 million Brazilian reals (US$ 54.9 million at current exchange rates) to the two Brazilian agribusiness groups.
The investment, among the largest to date in the Brazilian ethanol industry by a foreign oil company, is part of BP’s strategy for biofuels, which revolves around sustainable raw materials that do not impact of food supply and research for developing the technologies needed in order to produce advanced biofuels.
Contact
Site: www.tropicalbioenergia.com.br
E-mail: tropical@tropicalbioenergia.com.br
Telephone: (+55 64) 3492 700
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
