I was talking to a friend a few days back and he mentioned that he was having a hard time acquiring land for his client in the Northern and Central Mindanao region because of land owners not wanting to let go of their lots at reasonable prices.
He said that land owners have started to become speculators because they know that there is a lot of buzz in the biofuel sector about their areas being ideal sites for biofuel production. This was even punctuated further with some news coming out that some investors are eyeing these areas to set up biofuel refineries.
UK Bronzeoak recenlty announced that they are eyeing either Bukidnon or Tarlac(in Northern Luzon) for their latest ethanol plant, while the presence of PNOC-AFC’s Jatropha model farm in Talakag, Bukidnon also fans the flames. Aside from that, you also have the Koreans, Americans, Chinese and British Investors who are eyeing the Philippines for their biofuel refineries. All this brought about by the signing of the Philippine Biofuels Bill into law earlier this year that mandates mixing of biofuels in the Nations Oil Based fuel supply.
That’s definitely a starters gun I’m hearing right now. *snicker*
Here’s a tip I can give to these biofuel investors hoping to set-up biofuel feedstock plantations in Mindanao. The best guys to help you look for these lands are the land acquisition experts found in established corporate farms (American Banana and Pineapple multinationals come to mind) since these guys have been doing this type of work for almost 30 decades, they practically have the entire island mapped out.
Category: Feedstock
