Brazil sees biofuel demand as unsustainable
Loek Boonekamp, head of the OECD´s commercial and marketing division told attendees at Agra FNP’s Outlook Brazil conference in Sao Paulo that plans to boost biofuel production, often cannot be justified in economic terms and may be unsustainable.
General Manager of Business for China Tex, Liones Severo, thinks the importance of preventing the world´s climate from deteriorating further justifies the increased use of biofuels.
Boonekamp feels that biofuel production will be damaging to the animal feed and meat industries. Even if the oil price fell to the point that it was no longer economic to make biofuels from grains or oilseeds, which stands at about US$90 per barrel in the EU (US$60 in the US), the decision to go ahead has been taken. The consequences will have to be lived with, even though it will prove to be unsustainable, he added.
The picture is not entirely negative as far as animal feed is concerned, Emma Cardy-Brown of Rabobank said. Although the price of maize will certainly increase as more is used to make ethanol, huge amounts of distillers grain, a by-product of ethanol production, will become available. This, as well as soymeal, can be used to feed cattle and pigs and is likely to fall in price.
However, finding alternatives for the maize used by the poultry meat industry will be more difficult and the poultry industry will have to be more inventive in future.
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