FIJI: Ambassador brings Chinese ethanol investors
Updated
It's the latest in a long list of brilliant ideas to make ethanol on Fiji. A group of Chinese investors is considering setting up a 27 million US dollar plant to produce ethanol from cassava. The Chinese entrepreneurs are currently in Fiji, hosted by Fiji's ambassador to China. But while those involved in the Fiji's fuel industry seem alternately excited or unfazed by the project, the public response has been more cautious.
Presenter: Megan Flamer
Speakers: Managing Director of petrol corporation Total Fiji limited, Vijay Kumar. Fiji's ambassador to China, Sir James Ah Koy. Chairman of the Sugar Commission of Fiji, John May.
FLAMER: Fiji's ambassador to China, Sir James Ah Koy, says ethanol production could begin in 15 months. He says the project could be completely financed by the Chinese or by a joint venture with the Fiji government. He says the project is fantastic.
AH KOY: The beautiful thing about this project, it uses as its raw material tapioca which cassava and it's an easy plant to grow in Fiji. It doesn't threaten any any sugar lands. What it does now is, we have so many acres or hectares of waste land, not even planted, still like fallow. With cassava, it's a crop that every Fijian, indigenous Fiji, everyone knows how to plant. It doesn't need any new training, it's almost like a weed for us. We just plant them and God looks after the balance. When the time comes to harvest, we just harvest it and this is why it's so beautiful for Fiji.
FLAMER: But the public's response to the idea has been much more cautious. Fiji Online has several responses to the story. Annie Ram comments there will be no cassava in the market and the people will be starving. Taga Lala says the venture needs an independent feasibility study to make sure it's not some fly by night venture. Mo worries that once the plant is operational, the price of cassava will skyrocket and the poor will suffer. And then there's this post from Yogi - "beware, I know it's very tempting, but remember when it's too good to be true, that's exactly what it is". But Sir James can't speak highly enough of his project. He says it's a tremendous opportunity for indigenous Fijians and shrugs off claims that it might be too good to be true.
AH KOY: But it's a sure shot thing, because it's a brand new industry. Ethanol is needed. We don't have an ethanol plant, we don't import it. It's ready to be mixed. We buy fuel. Now fuel can be mixed at the rate of 90 per cent of it is fuel and 10 per cent of its ethanol. It's a sure shot.
FLAMER: Concerns have also been voiced about the impact this could have on the sugar industry's bid to make ethanol from molasses. But the chairman of the Sugar Commission of Fiji, John May, says there's more than enough to go around.
MAY: It's probably complementary, because they will be using a different feed stock. That's quite separate from the Fiji Sugar Corporation plans to make ethanol out of molasses.
FLAMER: Is there a chance that there could be then too much ethanol being produced?
MAY: No, there's never enough ethanol for the various uses that they can put it to. There's other issues in terms of what they do with the ethanol.
FLAMER: And the managing director of Petrol Corporation, Total Fiji Limited, V.J. Kumar, says his company isn't to worried about the prospect of ethanol overtaking petrol as a fuel source in Fiji. He says eventually the impact would be fewer oil imports which would ultimately save Fiji money.
KUMAR: You see, ethanol as a biofuel will have some impact on the sale of fossil fuels eventually. But at the initial stages, we see that it would have to done as a blend progressively increasing and as I was mentioning, this is a move in the right direction, because I think the world is moving towards looking at a cleaner fuel and reducing the carbon footprint and Fiji is doing it as an island country. I believe that the step is in the right direction.
FLAMER: Wouldn't that be bad for your bottom line as a company?
KUMAR: Not really, because as we see the impact of it is not going to be so major, because the globalised demand is also increasing. So on volume terms, I don't see the impact will do it so dramatically.
