Renewable Energy and Oils
Renewable energy, biofuels, and ethanol are buzzwords. The commercial demand for renewable energy is rapidly increasing, and it even outpaces the supply.
Major corporations such as food processors like Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland Company are investing heavily in biofuels. On the energy front, Chevron and BP are pouring millions into biofuel production and processing.
As Reuters reported last week, global biodiesel output is likely to increase 27% to 14 million in the 2008/09 oil year as producers capitalize on weak raw-material prices and absorb excess inventories.
US President-elect, Barack Obama, has just announced his plan for a $150 billion fund for biofuels and other “climate-friendly” measures, as well as mandatory carbon dioxide and GHG reductions by 80% from 1990 levels by 2050.
Barack Obama wants to increase federal fuel economy requirements, limit expansion of offshore oil and gas drilling, and propose a windfall-profit tax on large oil companies. He would also require utilities to produce 25% of power from renewable energy.
Biodiesel comes from soybean, palm or oil-seed plants like canola and mustard, as well as from animal fats. Corn oil can also be extracted for fuel. But the problem is the search for renewable energy is depleting nations’ feedstock reserves. The decrease in food supply leads to increased global food prices stirring up the food-versus-fuel debate.
A reaction is growing against policies of the United States and Europe to promote biofuels among political leaders from poor countries who are fervently claiming that these fuels are driving up food prices and starving poor people. They are trying to put pressure on Western politicians to reconsider their policies. They blame the production of biofuels as the primary factor in the sharp increase in food prices. Hit hard by rising food prices, the governments of the developing world are calling for urgent action to deal with the price spikes, and several of them demanded a reconsideration of biofuel policies adopted recently in the United States and the European Union (nytimes.com).
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations had predicted last year that biofuel production, assuming that current mandates continue, would increase food costs by 10 to 15 percent. The World Bank also reported an increase in global food prices by 83 percent in the last three years. Rice, a staple food for nearly half the world’s population, has been a particular focus of concern in recent weeks, with spiraling prices prompting several countries to impose drastic limits on exports as they try to protect domestic consumers.
Along with Asia, Africa is the region that suffers most from the policies of the West. The Continent is looking for additional ways to combat food insecurity and to come up with a long-term plan to take care of its poor and hungry occupants.
In this environment, Saranabu Sa has 15 years of experience in the Oils and Fats trade. They continue to provide innovative and cost effective solutions to its customers in the West African sub region with customers across many countries in West And Central Africa, a region where businesses face precarious challenges in the financial, logistic, and economic laws and regulations that are accompaniments to normal business troubles the rest of the world wakes up to daily.
Over these years, Saranabu has earned its reputation as reliable suppliers to both industries and merchants. In the face of growing food prices, Saranabu seeks to reduce cost and increase its customers’ profits. Saranabu has also been a fervent supporter of protecting food stocks and conscientious production of alternative energy. The company supports agricultural development in the West African region.
With more than thirty five full-time employees and a strong regional presence through its established trading partners over twenty five years, the Saranabu Group is the largest importer of bulk vegetable oil and also other products such as shortening (bakery fat), stearine, margarine, PFAD (Palm Fatty Acid), and soap noodles.