Colombia loses $29m after heavy flooding

Severe flooding in Colombia in December last year has led to a loss of $29 million (€21.77 million) for the country's ethanol industry.

Six ethanol refineries were also forced to close down throughout December, after sugarcane fields were immersed in water and access to harvesting equipment was restricted.

Speaking about the flooding, which first hit the nation back in mid-November, Jorge Bendeck Olivella, president of Colombia's National Biofuels Federation, says: 'The floods have damaged not just sugar and ethanol production, but other crops, including the palm plantations that produce oil for biodiesel. About 7% of all such palms in Colombia are inundated.'

However, Olivella went on to say that producers are hoping to commence operations to around 500,000 litres a day by the end of this month.

The industry is also planning to ramp up output capacity by 20% by the end of this year. Cauca Valley, southwest Colombia-based facilities are hoping to reach 1.27 million litres a day production capacity through expansion projects.

And these figures are set to increase further as two new ethanol plants are to be built. Upon completion in two years' time they will add 682,000 litres per day, bringing capacity to 1.95 million litres a day.

Ecopetrol, a state-owned oil company, is behind the plans for one of these plants. Costing $275 million to construct, the Meta state-based facility will manufacture 475,000 litres a day of ethanol.

The second of these two new plants comes courtesy of Agrifuels.