Jamaica Broiler To Double Ethanol Capacity
JAMAICA - JB Ethanol Limited, a subsidiary of the Robert Levy and R Danny Williams controlled Jamaica Broilers Group Limited will be spending US$15 million (J$1 billion) to expand its ethanol production facility to 120 million gallons per annum, while employing 15 per cent more workers.Speaking in an interview, Christopher Levy, vice-president in charge of operations at the Jamaica Broilers explained that the expansion programme will commence in December of this year, and that the company will continue to import raw material, hydrous alcohol from Brazil, extract the water from it and then export it to the United States (US) under the favourable terms of the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI).
The CBI was negotiated by former Prime Minister Edward Seaga and former US president Ronald Reagan in 1983. Under the Initiative, producers of ethanol in the Caribbean have duty-free access to the US market, while their counterparts in Brazil and other South American countries face a duty of US0.52 per gallon.
The demand for ethanol in the US is increasing rapidly as President George W. Bush seeks to reduce the country’s dependence on oil, amid galloping and unpredictable energy prices. America is currently consuming almost 20 per cent of the world’s oil demand or some 20.3 million barrels daily.
Mr Levy predicted that ethanol could become the country’s third largest net earner of foreign exchange in three years time when Infiniti the Brazilian conglomerate, which recently acquired the loss-making Sugar Company Jamaica (SCJ) starts to produce and export.
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