Changhae Tapioca plant 90,000 acres of cassava in Papua New Guinea for ethanol

In Papua New Guinea, Changhae Tapioca announced that it would plant a total of 90,000 acres for cassava, up from 43,000 announced last year, and ship the crop to Korea for conversion in to ethanol. The company said that it expected to generate more than $15 million in annual export earnings and create 5,000 jobs.

Changhae Tapioka did not mention the fate of a $100 million cassava ethanol plant under development in Launakalana, in Central province. However the company doubled the planned cassava acreage after commencing a pilot growing program to produce ideal varietals.
A study by SJH Associates demonstrated that a $60 million investment in an ethanol plant results in more than $110 million in increased economic activity, and that farmers who invest $20,000 in ethanol plants receive an average 13.3 percent return on their investment. The study was cited by the Nigerian Cassava Growers Association, who projected that Nigeria will save over $6.1 billion by 2012 on the importation of kerosene and gasoline.

In China, the province of Guangxi said that a cassava (tapioca) shortage may lead it to curtail ethanol production projections for this year, and have cast doubt on the province’s plans to double production by 2010. Provincial officials originally set a production goal of 1 million tons of ethanol but is looking now at a best-case scenario of 200,000 tonnes.

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