Cocoa Giant Ivory Coast Targets Biofuel Production

IVORY COAST - Ivory Coast is diversifying into the booming market for biofuels by growing jatropha, with several projects already underway and with plans to refine the oil domestically.

In Toumdi in centre of the country, the Ivory Coast Reneweable Energies Development Agency (ADERCI), a privately-owned firm, is producing seeds for a project to grow jatropha and castor plants on 100,000 hectares from 2009, according to reports in Flex News.

The project involves around 70,000 farmers, and is seen producing a total of 1.8 million tonnes of jatropha and castor seeds a year, enough to make 705,600 tonnes of biofuel.

"Right now we are producing the feedstock seeds for the plants and the project is well advanced," said ADERCI director Jean Koudou Goussou told Flex News.

About 5,000 hectares of jatropha or castor oil will be enough to produce between 15 and 23 million litres of biodiesel per year.

The Ivorian government intends to pass a law by the end of the year governing the biofuel sector, and setting a fixed price per kg at which it will buy jatropha seeds, the Flex News report says.

TheBioenergySite News Desk