Johannesburg – South Africa’s plan to source all grain needed for biofuels production locally means sorghum output will have to climb at least fivefold, the nation’s biggest representative of commercial farmers said.
Biofuel must comprise at least 5 percent of diesel and 2 percent to 10 percent of gasoline starting October 1, 2015, Energy Minister Ben Martins said in a September 30 Government Gazette.
South Africa’s sorghum harvest probably increased 11 percent to 151,064 tons in the season that ended in April from a year earlier, the Pretoria-based Crop Estimates Committee said in its final forecast on September 26.
“We need an additional volume of 620,000 tons of sorghum to produce enough bioethanol to meet the 2 percent inclusion rate,” Wessel Lemmer, a senior economist at Grain South Africa, said in an e-mail.
That would equate to output of about 771,000 metric tons.
“The grains need to be produced locally, providing additional jobs in the value chain.”
Read More: SA biofuels push may boost sorghum output fivefold – Companies | IOL Business | IOL.co.za.