Tarlac sugar refinery pledges increased ethanol production to avert looming oil crisis

Despite having been affected by the land and labor row at the Hacienda Luisita, the Central Azucarrera de Tarlac (CAT) yesterday announced that it will increase its ethanol production to help avert the looming oil crisis in the country.

Joey Romasanta, vice president for corporate affairs of CAT, said that the planned increase in their production of ethanol is their response to the call of President Arroyo for the development of alternative sources of energy, including biofuel, in the wake of the skyrocketing prices of crude oil in the world market.

A byproduct of sugarcane, ethanol can be used as fuel additive or in mixture with gasoline to produce alcogas or gasohol.  Ethanol is widely used in the production of liquor, rubbing alcohol, and various industrial purposes.

According to Romasanta, the CAT has the initial capacity to produce at least 10 million liters of ethanol per six months but CAT could double its capacity if the demand for ethanol rises and when sugar planters produce more sugar cane for processing.

"The CAT’s facilities are intact and it could be immediately put to use to produce more ethanol," Romasanta said.

He claimed that the CAT has practically recovered from the "crippling effects" of the labor dispute in the Hacienda Luisita, after it’s workers and management forged in December last year an agreement to put the dispute behind and work for the recovery of the CAT, the Tarlac-based sugar refinery owned by the Cojuangcos.

Romasanta, however, admitted that the CAR is still being affected by the closure of the Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI), which produces about 30 percent of the sugar cane that CAT manufactures into sugar, ethanol, molasses, and other sugar-based products.

Romasanta said the CAT mills 1.1 million tons of sugar cane per crop year, and about 260,000 tons of sugar cane usually comes from the hacienda.

Romasanta noted that the sprawling sugar farm could not reopen pending the resolution of an appeal lodged by the HLI before the Supreme Court, contesting the decision of the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) to revoke the stock distribution plan (SDP) in the 5,000-hectare hacienda.

Seventy percent of the sugar cane that CAT manufactures into sugar-based products come from district and outside planters in other areas of Tarlac, Pampanga, Bataan, and Pangasinan, Romasanta said.