Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, June 7 -- Shomar International Trading Corp. of Japan plans to construct facilities valued at $189.3 million in the Philippines to produce biodiesel fuel made from the jathropa or "tuba-tuba" plant.
The company reported it would build the facilities in Hermosa after an inspection by Japanese experts who are evaluating the effects of its proximity to the seaport of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.
Some 5,000 hectares of idle land in Hermosa will be planted with jathropa, and the company will seek an additional 70,000 hectares to maximize production.
In the interim, Shomar will establish warehouses and a press-out factory in Hermosa where jathropa oil will be extracted.
Last month, Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced that Saudi Aramco had agreed to erect a jathropa processing plant and an ethanol distillery in Mindanao.
She said Saudi Aramco could secure its jathropa supply from North Luzon, where idle military camps have been converted into jathropha plantations.
Macapagal-Arroyo pushed for large-scale cultivation of the jathropa plant as a substitute for diesel, saying, "We could muster the vast agricultural prowess of the Philippines to our advantage."
At the same time, she asked the Philippine Congress to expedite the passage of the Biofuel Act "to encourage more investments in alternative fuel sources."
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
