Mali Biocarburant aims to be first African jatropha biodiesel venture to reach production stage

Mali Biocarburant is intending to be the first jatropha biodiesel company to commence production in Africa. The company buys jatropha nuts from farmers who have planted 20,000 km of jatropha fences in Mali that protect crops and limit soil erosion. The company did not release details on the volume of jatropha nuts it planned to obtain.

In Kenya, the Green Power East Africa jatropha biodiesel plant in Nairobi is attracting much attention from local farmers, as jatropha continues to be a hot topic across the continents.

D1Oils and Sun Biofuels are offering seeds and technical assistance to farmers in several countries in return for production contracts. D1 has a $90 million joint venture with BP, and has 338,000 acres under jatropha production with plans to plant more than 80,000 acres in Swaziland, Zambia, Madagascar, Mali and Malawi. The company recently signed with Keygene to obtain exclusive rights to Keygene’s applied jatropha research.

Jatropha seeds yield up to 40 percent oil and waste matter is sold as fertilizer. However, with current yields of 1.7 tonnes of oil per acre, jatropha lags behind the 4 tonnes per acre realized from palm oil.

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