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ALLAYING
fears that food security may be compromised by the
government’s thrust of promoting the development and use
of agriculture-based alternative sources of energy, the
Asian Institute of Petroleum Studies Inc. (AIPSI) and US
National Biofuels Board (USNBB) said Monday that
biofuels have limited impact on food supply and pricing
in the Philippines.
AIPSI
and USNBB issued the statement in response to the United
Kingdom’s Gallagher Review of biofuels that expressed
concern that biofuels may raise food prices.
“While
the Gallagher Review is specific to the United Kingdom’s
own renewable-fuels policies, it is fair to note that
the research done by US experts and the US Department of
Agriculture has proven that biofuels-related feedstock
demand has limited impact on global food supply and
pricing,” Joe Jobe, USNBB chief executive officer, said.
He
noted, though, that with gas prices soaring to more than
$4 a gallon, the addition of biofuels to the US fuel
supply is one of the only things keeping prices from
going higher.
Raffy
Diaz, AIPSI managing director, further said that to say
it has none (no impact) is naïvete. “But to pass on
nearly the whole problem of food supply and price as
being the result of biofuel to the level of more than 75
percent of feedstock production is outright ridiculous,”
he added.
Diaz
said the claimed impact of biofuel feedstock eating up
on food supply is very much below 10 percent on global
basis, which pertains to corn for ethanol and soybean
for biodiesel.
“A
situation in one country cannot be echoed as being true,
globally. But we do know that there are antibiofuel
forces [and I believe we know who they are] who will
jump and bankroll every opportunity to make mountain out
of tiny molehill of issue on biofuel,” Diaz said.
He said
the country’s biodiesel requirement at 1-percent
biodiesel blend is around 60 million to 70 million
liters annually because demand for diesel is between 6
billion and 7 billion liters (and this is fast
declining due to high fuel cost).
For B2,
biodiesel requirement will be double to around 112
million to 114 million liters by 2009.
“From
coco-oil production of 1.4 billion liters per year more
or less, the biodiesel component will translate to just
4 percent to 5 percent for B1 and 8 percent to 10
percent for B2,” Diaz said.
He added
that “the coco methyl ester requirement for B1 and
eventually B2 is less than 10 percent of total
coconut-oil production so it would be obvious that the
steep rise in coco-oil price cannot be totally
attributed to biodiesel.”
Diaz
said the cocobiodiesel initiative, which was given
serious focus at the turn of the new millennium, was
meant to raise copra price at farmgate level to
alleviate poverty in the coco industry.
Diaz
said, however, the steep rise in the price level of
copra and/or coconut oil today cannot be attributed
anymore to the local CME demand.
“Coconut
oil has many uses as health food, as
surfactant/detergent, as specialty lubes, as fuel
additive component, as ingredient for skin care and
cosmetics, and many others,” Diaz said. |
