Cambodia's only biofuel plant delays reopening

via CAAI

PHNOM PHEN, Oct 9 (Commodity Online): The only biofuel factory in Cambodia remained closed owing to lack of raw materials.

MH Bio-Energy plant, a Kandal province factory owned by South Korea pushed back its reopening to December 2010 as the price of cassava remains high.

The factory uses cassava to produce ethanol for sale on EU markets, first opened in November 2008 with an initial investment of $30 million. However, its doors have been closed since May because of rising crop prices.

Prices of the main raw material used Dry-chip cassava, were fetching $230 per tone, and compared $178 to $181 per tone early this year.

Analysts said the situation was about to change. By November, the firm would be able harvest its own cassava from Kampong Speu province, where it had planted on 8,000 hectares of land, enabling it to bypass market prices.

The current price is about 2,250 baht about $74.40 per tone. Thailand banned imports of Cambodia cassava in 2009, which meant that few farmers planted the crop, but that this year more than 1,000 local families had backed it as their crop of choice. Middlemen were already in place to aid exports.