Proef to plant 30,000 hectares of sugar cane in Angola for power and fuel

In Angola, the Portuguese development company Proef SGPS will plant 30,000 hectares of sugar cane in Zaire province in the northern part of the country, as feedstock for ethanol and electricity. The plantation is expected to produce 350 to 400 tonnes of sugar cane annually, by 2015.

Brazil recently doubled a $1.3 billion credit line for Angola as a step in the expansion of Angolan-Brazilian trade. The credit line was announced by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Luanda, on the last leg of a four-country African visit. Angola, which concluded a 27-year civil war in 2002, has been helped by an oil boom, but is seeking to expand its biofuels infrastructure to take advantage of good land for biofuel feedstock cultivation. But transport infrastructure will need to be repaired following the devastation of the civil war period.
Last October, Angolan and Brazilian companies Oldebrecht, Sonangol and Damers formed the Biocom joint venture to produce ethanol, electricity in Angola. The Biocom plant, which is projected to open in 2010, will operate at 30 percent of capacity in its first year and will reach full capacity in 2012. The sugar, ethanol and power produced by the project are expected to be used domestically rather than for export, due to local shortages of these commodities.

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