Mauritius turns to ethanol as sugar price supports set to crumble

In Mauritius, the government has commenced conversion of the island nation’s sugar plants to flexi-factories that will produce refined sugar or biofuels depending on market conditions. Europe has typically purchased more than 90 percent Mauritius’ sugar production at fixed prices, but guaranteed prices are expected to drop 36 percent by 2009 as Europe reforms its sugar market.

In India, sugar producers have recently gained the right to convert sugar cane directly to ethanol as a 12 million tonne sugar glut looms.

Last month in Australia, Ord River sugar growers  pressed the Western Australia government to support the Ord Stage 2 expansion project, which will provide more land for sugar and give the growers enough economy of scale to produce ethanol from sugar. The sugar industry is threatened with shut down after the closure of a local Kununurra-based in the next year due to depressed global sugar prices.

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