According to Antonio Saide, the national director for new and renewable sources of energy, in the Ministry of Energy, such a strategy document is a fundamental step in drawing up a viable programme for the production of ethanol and bio-diesel.
Saide told AIM that, if Mozambique is to become competitive in the biofuel market, it must look strategically at the area and then define clearly what it intends to offer.
"We must have our own strategies for each one of the biofuels", he said. "That's why the consultants must deliver in September their draft of a biofuel strategy for Mozambique, which should take into account the raw materials, competitiveness and the market".
The consultants have already produced one study on Mozambique's bio-fuel potential, which suggests that jatropha, ricin, African palm, and coconuts can be used to produce bio-diesel, while ethanol can be based on sugar cane, maize and cassava.
The challenge now is to identify which of these should be used, bearing in mind the viability of production and the quality of the end product. "We must assess the raw materials, study their potential, and the contribution that each could make to the programme, in order to decide which of them will be used to produce each biofuel", said Saide.
Ana Locke, financial advisor to the Agricultural Promotion Centre (CEPAGRI), told AIM that detailed work must be done to choose the plants that will be used as raw material for producing biofuels.
She pointed to problems with coconut palms: those in the southern province of Inhambane are old, and not very productive, and so new palm trees must be planted. As for the vast coconut plantations of Zambezia province, they were infected with lethal yellowing disease, although there is now a project, to be funded by the American millennium Challenge Account {MCA} to root out the infected trees and plant new ones.
It is thought that Mozambique could produce 40 million litres of bio-diesel and 21 million litres of ethanol a year. The government believes that a biofuel strategy can be sustainable, but so far there is no date for the start of biofuel production.
SOURCE: AIM
