A Spanish biodiesel leader in Europe is planning to invest $200 million in the Philippines to develop at least 100,000 hectares of land into jatropha plantations to be used as feedstock for biofuel facilities, the Department of Agriculture said over the weekend.

The Bionor Transformacion S.A. disclosed its plans to invest in the country through a memorandum of agreement signed recently between AME Bionergy Corp. and the Philippine Agricultural Development and Commercial Corp., Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said.

AME, appointed the key integrator for Bionor in the Philippines, is tasked to identify suitable jatropha plantation sites, consolidate lands, organize and train farm labor, use appropriate cultivation and agronomic practices, organize local support to install plantation infrastructure, and study the cost structure for production, the DA said.

PADCC will assist AME and mobilize the resources of the DA's agencies and bureaus and financial institutions.

The MOA between AME and PADCC was signed last November 16 by AME president Eugenio Puyat II and PADCC president Marriz Agbon.

Yap said Bionor's main thrust is to develop feedstock plantations worldwide using raw materials that do not compete with the food sector and do not lead to deforestation.

This is why Bionor is tapping jatropha, a non-food crop, to support the requirements of its refineries, he said.

Bionor is operating two biodiesel plants in Spain and Italy with a combined output of 125,000 metric tons and constructing an additional five plants in Spain and Brazil that will generate an additional 900,000 MT of capacity in 2008 and in the first quarter 2009.*

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