A large wheat ethanol plant will be built in Brazil. The project, still unheard of in Brazil, will be carried out by one of the largest biofuel producers in the country, BSBios. According to its chief executive Erasmo Battistella for Reuters, even with ethanol production there will be no reduction in food supply.

The BSBios unit is expected to go into operation in the second half of 2024 in Rio Grande do Sul, now the country's largest wheat producer and will produce 111 million liters of ethanol in the first phase of the project.

In an interview, the company's CEO said the project underscores his confidence that farmers will expand the wheat area and production, reducing dependence on imports and creating an even larger domestic market for cereal. Brazil is expected to produce a record harvest of 9 million tons this year, with producers sowing the largest area in 32 years.

Battistella noted that his plant will increase the supply of food because it will also sell dry distillery grains, a byproduct of the production of ethanol used as feed for livestock. "I don't want anyone to look at our company and say, you're taking our bread every day off the table! I want you to say: you are helping to increase the supply of meat, milk and eggs and cheapmating food through this project," he told Reuters.

The government is also counting on research to boost "tropical wheat" in the Cerrado biome, considered a new frontier of wheat agriculture. The warmer, drier climate of the Cerrado requires plants to be adapted, and planting wheat there is seen as fundamental for the South American country to become self-sufficient in 10 years, a government goal.  In addition, Brazil recently began testing a variety of drought-resistant genetically modified wheat in the Cerrado in partnership with Argentina.

With information from Reuters

Source: RPA news