January 12, 2007

Chinese firm to build ethanol plant in RP

China CAMC Engineering Co plans to build an ethanol plant in southern Philippines, reports the Philippine Star Daily.

CAMC president Luo Yan and Philippine Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap will sign an agreement on the Chinese investment for a plant in the province of Palawan, with the capacity to make 150,000 litres per day of the biofuel additive.

Beijing-based CAMC will also build a shipyard and cold storage facility and will upgrade parts of the Navotas Fish Port Complex in the north eastern part of Manila.

China, the world's most populous country, is buying access to commodities around the globe as its economy expands.

CAMC is among the Chinese companies that have invested in Philippine agriculture. Other Chinese firms that have signed business deals with the Department of Agriculture are Beidahuang Group, the investment arm of Heilongjiang provincial government and Fuhua Group Co. Ltd., an investment company.

Yap said these Chinese companies are looking forward for land to develop where they may lease the land from beneficiaries of the agrarian reform program or enter joint venture with the land owners.

The Philippine Agrarian Reform Law provided that no individual can own more than 50 hectares. Owners were therefore required to sell to the government their excess land, to be distributed to landless farmers. Yap noted that Filipino farmers who got their land from the government under the program, can lease to the Chinese investors.