Chinese firm to build ethanol plant in RP

China CAMC Engineering Co. plans to build an ethanol plant in southern Philippines, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said yesterday.

CAMC president Luo Yan and Yap will sign an agreement on the Chinese investment for a plant in the province of Palawan, with the capacity to make 150,000 liters per day of the biofuel additive, Yap told reporters without saying what feedstock the company will use to make ethanol.

Beijing-based CAMC will also build a shipyard and cold storage facility and will upgrade parts of the Navotas Fish Port Complex in the north eastern part of Manila.

China, the world’s most populous country, is buying access to commodities around the globe as its economy expands.

CAMC joins other Chinese companies investing in Philippine agriculture, including Beidahuang Group, the investment arm of Heilongjiang provincial government and Fuhua Group Co. Ltd., an investment company.

"These Chinese companies are looking for land to develop," Yap said. "They may lease the land from beneficiaries of the agrarian reform program, or enter into joint venture with land owners."

The Agrarian Reform Law provided that no individual can own more than 50 hectares. Owners were therefore required to sell to the government their excess land, to be distributed to landless farmers. Filipino farmers who got their land from the government under the program, can lease to the Chinese investors, Yap said.