jse markets

Mozambique: Part 2 – Bio-fuel and Diversifying the Economy

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:36

Despite massive coal deposits, over 80% of Mozambiquans live without electricity, while coal mining and energy projects in the North are vital to the country’s growth. It’s in bio-fuel where Mozambique is pinning its hopes, not only for local power generation but also agricultural development.

Only 6.6% of Mozambique’s some 64million hectares of arable land is currently utilized. By rekindling the country’s sugar industry and modeling its bio-fuel policy on success stories like Brazil and Mauritius, authorities say Mozambique could produce over 3 million barrels of bio-oil a day.