South Africa’s DME Gives Maize Red Light as Biofuel Feedstock

The controversy over using food crops as feedstock for biofuel production is increasing with the latest announcement from South Africa’s Department of Minerals and Energy saying that the use of maize will be excluded as a source of feedstock.

The exclusion of maize comes amid concerns over food security and fears of price increases, Minister Buyelwa Sonjica explained at a briefing at the Union Buildings, Pretoria in December. The minister said that bioethanol would be produced from sugar cane and sugar beet, and biodiesel would use soya beans, canola and sunflower as feedstock.

Sonjica said that the concerns over what crops to use could delay the enactment of the government’s biofuels strategy. In early November the strategy on biofuels was finalized and sent to the country’s Cabinet for consideration. Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa told a media briefing in Pretoria that an inter-ministerial committee had finalized the strategy, suggesting some changes, and that it would could then go to the Cabinet, which would consider the structure and length of incentives.

Among the issues the committee reviewed was the potential effects that the biofuels industry could have on the country’s food security, and the kind of support incentives that could be provided for biofuels producers. In addition to maize sugar cane, soya beans, and algae, were considered as possible feedstocks for South Africa’s biofuels production.

Mpahlwa said that more details on the strategy were likely to emerge when he next briefed journalists on the government’s economic cluster’s program of action, early 2008.