French beet growers welcome biofuel decision
© 2000 Reuters Limited
September 12, 2000
PARIS - French beet growers yesterday welcomed the government's decision to allow a rise in biofuel production, saying it would help to reduce air pollution and raise the area planted to beet in France.
The farm ministry said on Saturday it had cleared the production of an extra 155,000 tonnes of the gasoline additive ETBE (Ethyl Tertio Butyl Ether), allowing oil firm TotalFinaElf to open one new plant in Donges in western France and another in La Mede in the south.
It also authorised the production of an additional 70,000 tonnes of the vegetable oil-based fuel diester, which would allow an increase in the production capacity of a plant in Grand Couronne in central France belonging to Diester Industrie du Centre-Ouest (DICO).
National beet producers' association CGB said it welcomed the long-awaited decision, which would bring the European Union a step closer to fulfilling its target of producing 60 million hectolitres of liquid biofuels by 2003.
The EU at present produces 10 million hectolitres of biofuels and the two new production units should add one million hectolitres to this total, the CGB said, highlighting how far the EU remained from its self-imposed goal.
"In the framework of this European Union target...it is advisable to consider a complementary development path which is that of directly incorporating ethanol into gasoline," the CGB said in a statement.
ETBE, which is used to reduce harmful gas emissions, is produced from beet-and wheat-based ethanol combined with isobutane. Diester is made from rapeseed or sunseed oil and is mixed with diesel, also with the aim of reducing pollution.
Oilseeds association Prolea also welcomed the government initiative, saying it would increase France's total annual diester output to 376,500 tonnes and bring it closer to the aim of producing 500,000 tonnes of diester per year by 2010.
The government said both fuels would benefit from tax exemptions which would be determined according to the price of petrol and oilseeds, in the case of diester, and the price of petrol alone in the case of ETBE.
The farm ministry said the output increase should result in a 100,000-tonne rise in the area reserved for the production of biofuels from 350,000 hectares at present, which consisted of 324,000 hectares of oilseeds, 18,000 hectares of beet and 8,000 hectares of wheat.
(Additional reporting by Paule Bonjean).