If proper action isn’t taken now, food security will be compromised as production patterns may change irrevocably, it said.Grain SA’s senior market research economist, Wessel Lemmer, told Farmer’s Weekly that since the 2005 Grain SA investigation into the economic viability of bioethanol, and up to the end of April 2010, some nine million tons of maize were exported. This amount of maize could have been used to manufacture about 3,6 billion litres of bioethanol, he said.
“Our maize exports consequently represent more than 720 million litres of petroleum over a period of five years. This is based on a 6,4% bioethanol blend in the national petroleum pool.” He added that the department of energy’s National Biofuel Study in 2006 confirmed the fact that South Africa has the potential to support a commercial biofuel industry, leading to increased fuel security.“Food security will be enhanced because the industry will contribute to an increase in the country’s production capacity for both grain and oilseeds,” said Lemmer.
However, the only current projects that could possibly get off the ground are those backed by government, the Central Energy Fund, the Industrial Development Corporation and the Department of Trade and Industry. These include a sugar beet/grain sorghum to bioethanol plant in Cradock, sugar to bioethanol plants in Hoedspruit and Makhathini, and a canola to biodiesel plant in the Eastern Cape.
“According to the revised Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP), the establishment of a biofuel industry is hampered by a regulatory framework not conducive to development, as well as the global economic crisis and lower oil prices that impacted negatively on investments,” said Lemmer.
The revised IPAP, intended to be implemented by 2011, endeavours to address the shortcomings in the current biofuel strategy. “This might be the ideal opportunity to re-engage government on the issue of maize as biofuel feedstock,” suggested Lemmer. While Standard Bank agricultural adviser Henry Ben Rheeder sees bioethanol as a long-term possibility, he said improved marketing of maize and maize products locally is the only short-term answer.
“If every one of the 46 million South Africans eats one portion of pap every day, it’ll make considerable inroads in the surpluses. More maize-based convenience foods must be made available in retail and fast-food outlets. The maize industry has sufficient funds available to launch a countrywide marketing campaign to increase local human consumption,” he said.However, Grain SA believes local supplies need to be reduced by the voluntary cutting of the number of hectares planted.
Grain SA’s industry services manager, Nico Hawkins, said it’s unlikely South African exports to Africa will reach the same levels of the past, mainly due to increasing self-sufficiency on the continent. Kenya imported some 40 000t up to 14 October 2010 compared to 837 000t for the whole of last year. “To reach the previous figure, we’ll have to export about 700 000t to Kenya before the end of the year – one shipload per week,” said Hawkins. “I can’t see that happening.”
