Smaller biofuels producers missing out on export markets

A new report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) claims certain biofuel certification schemes are holding back small producers and developing countries from export drives.

 The report, titled Biofuels and the Sustainability Challenge, outlays that current certification schemes are predominately designed to fit the large scale agro-industry, believing that the required costs needed to store and process the extra data and information needed to participate is out of most smallholders capabilities.

‘As structured, these schemes would tend to favour big players and provide incentives for scaling up production to absorb certification costs,’ the report states. ‘Many developing countries express concern that certification schemes can become indirect trade barriers when not managed properly.’

One solution FAO would like to see from governments and international organisations in consumer or producer countries would be the introduction of ‘complementary mechanisms to create an enabling environment like national legislation, tax incentives or start-up grants’.