ITALIAN COMPANY TO GROW JATROPHA IN MOAMBA

The Italian company “BioEnergy” is to invest 20 million dollars to grow the shrub Jatropha in Sabie, in the southern Mozambican district of Moamba.The jatropha seeds will be exported to Italy to be processed and transformed into biodiesel.The cultivation began in October 2008 with just ten plants. Today the project has about 5,300 plants covering an area of 70 hectares, according to a report in Thursday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.The objective, according to Joao Colombo, an agricultural technician linked to the project, is to expand the project to cover 120 hectares with an additional one and a half hectares dedicated to the plant nursery.Colombo said that the aim is to gather 200 tonnes of jatropha each season for transformation into biodiesel.Once this production is guaranteed the company will advance to the second phase of the project which consists of building a factory in Moamba to process and transform the jatropha into biodiesel.Colombo said that the opening of this unit will result in biodiesel being made in the country, sold locally and also exported to Italy.At the beginning of the project the company tested seeds from Brazil, India, the Dominican Republic and Tanzania. However, the best seed was a Mozambican variety which produces two kilos per plant.The project to grow jatropha in Moamba employs 31 permanent staff and a further 40 seasonal workers.