Brazil Calls for Ethanol Production by Others
Date: 15-Mar-07
Country: JAPAN
Author: Risa Maeda and Miho Yoshikawa
Brazil and the United States are the two largest producers of ethanol, accounting for about 70 percent of world output.
"Brazil has absolutely no interest in monopolising the production of ethanol," Agriculture Minister Luis Carlos Guedes Pinto said.
He told a news conference through an interpreter that Brazil was prepared to share its experience and technology on ethanol built over the years with countries around the globe including in Africa and Asia.
Brazil, a pioneer of sugarcane-based biofuels, exported 3.43 billion litres (3.4 million kl) of ethanol in 2006, up 350 percent from three years ago. Its exports in 2005 totalled 2.59 billion litres.
Guedes said it was also important to establish a common standard for ethanol if the renewable fuel is to become an international commodity.
Brazil and the United States last week signed a broad agreement to work together to advance biofuels technology and set common standards for ethanol trade.
Guedes said he had met officials in Japan from both the government and private sector, including Japan's top trading firm Mitsubishi Corp. and third-ranked Itochu Corp., during his visit this week, which ends on Wednesday.
During his talks with Japanese government officials, he said, he suggested the joint establishment of an ethanol production base in Southeast Asia, such as in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia or Indonesia, although no decision had been made. Japan is trying to step up the use of biomass in motor fuels in line with a pledge by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last September.
Japan, the world's third-largest oil consumer, lags many other parts of the world in that there are practically no users of ethanol-blended gasoline.
Brazil exports about 300 million litres of ethanol a year to Japan for industrial and other purposes, but not for fuel, Guedes said.
He said Brazil did not have a target for ethanol exports to Japan.
"We have not received any request from Japan about how much it would like buy or by when," Guedes said.
Japan's oil distributors are allowed to sell gasoline blended with a maximum of 3 percent of biomass ethanol, called E3.
Guedes estimated Japan's ethanol demand at 1.8 billion litres if E3 becomes firmly established in Japan, adding the amount would be well within Brazil's export capability.
He said he understood that Japan wished to cover some of that demand through domestic production.
"I would like to say that Brazil will have no problems supplying the needed volume when a contract is actually signed (with a Japanese firm)," Guedes said.
MEAT EXPORTS
Guedes also spoke to his Japanese counterpart, Toshikatsu Matsuoka, about the issue of resuming exports of Brazilian beef and pork to Japan.
Japan closed its borders to supplies of beef and pork from Brazil after food-and-mouth disease was reported there more than a decade ago.
Guedes said Japan has some very strict rules about animal disease, but Brazil believes at least one state has met the standards for the restart of trade.
He expressed hope that Japan would soon take steps to lift the ban. Brazil is the world's top exporter of beef and fourth-largest supplier of pork.
A Japanese farm ministry official said there was no timetable for lifting the ban on fresh beef and pork supplies from Brazil.
He said beef and pork meat that had been cooked to the core was allowed to enter Japan.
(Additional reporting by Ikuko Kao)
