Jamaica Broilers CEO optimistic about ethanol; says JB costs are lower than US; ethanol price drops related to East Coast distribution problems

Jamaica Broilers said that US ethanol prices are depressed because, as the US ethanol industry expanded distribution, “manufacturers in the US Midwest corn belt were forced to drop their prices in order to cost-effectively move the product by rail or truck to the east coast” according to JB Chairman Robert Levy. Levy said that sugar ethanol plants, of the type JB is creating in Jamaica, can be built for a fraction of the price of a US corn ethanol plant, saying that a 60 Mgy facility required only a $20 million investment.

Recently, a  new Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) study examined biofuel opportunities in Barbados, Jamaica and Guyana. The report discussed the 6 million gallon ethanol target for Barbados, to cover domestic needs, which could be produced from sugar cane.

Also, the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras is negotiating to use Petrojam’s Kingston, Jamaica port to distribute ethanol to Latin America and the Caribbean. The project was the subject of recent discussions by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva last month in Jamaica.

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