Southridge to commence construction on 20 Mgy ethanol plant in El Salvador

In El Salvador, Southridge Enterprises will commence construction this month on its 20 Mgy Salvadorean ethanol plant. The company will construct a 15 Mgy ethanol drying facility for export markets and a 5 Mgy sugar cane ethanol plant for local consumption and export. The company will produce ethanol from 4500 acres of its own sugar cane. The plant will burn bagasse to reduce energy costs by 60 percent.

The plan takes advantage of the Caribbean Basins Initiative trade pact which permits El Salvador to export ethanol to the United States tax-free, vs. the 54 cent per gallon tariff on direct exports from Brazil.

The Miami Herald recently published a roundup of Latin American efforts to increase biofuel production. The article tracked export efforts by Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica and El Salvador to import sugar ethanol from Brazil, process it and ship to the US because CAFTA regulations permit this duty-free, as opposed to the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff imposed on direct imports from Brazil into the US.

Caribbean and Latin American government officials, meeting in Miami last month, said that ethanol would provide a means of reviving the Caribbean sugar industry which had been crushed by competition from Brazil. An El Salvador delegate told a regional conference that his country had 741,000 acres formerly used for sugar cane that was not currently under production.

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