Ethanol imports from Brazil not a viable option: Experts

I don’t see any confusion happening on that front but as regards importing ethanol from Brazil, I don’t see that it is a viable proposition in the present atmosphere because with the season 6, 7 approaching now for Indian sugar mills, probably we will be seeing ethanol production or maybe rectified spirit production of about 220 crore litre plus.

So I think that we will be able to meet our demand, when the import parity is not working out in favour of importing from Brazil because logistically too, it is not viable. I don’t think there is any confusion or there should be any talk on exploring the possibility of importing ethanol from Brazil, at least for the coming season that may turn out to be viable.

Maybe a year thereafter or maybe in season 7, 8, but that will be too early to take a call. So right now, we should focus only on season 6,7, where we are capable enough to meet the demands of the oil marketing companies domestically to the extent of 5% doping. 

Q: At this point, are you maintaining the targets that you had set up in terms of distillery expansion and what you might have done in terms of revenues for FY08?

Murkumbi: Yes, very much. In fact, I would like to point out the positives of what announcements are coming in. First, the commitment for three years, which oil marketing companies are prepared to do.

Second is the fact that the commercial processes are actually been rolled out. The other thing that I would like to point out is that even in the past, when there was a MoU at the Central government level on the price, the actual procurement from individual companies was always done by tender.

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