Join hands with farmers

Petrol Viet Nam Corporation (PVN) has so far established 3 ethanol factories in Phu Tho, Quang Ngai and Binh Phuoc, each of which has a capacity of 100 million liters per year. These regions are regarded as having the favorable type of soil as well as suitable socio-economic condition for growing cassava plants as raw materials for ethanol.

 “To produce 100 liters of ethanol, a factory needs 250 thousand tons of dried sliced cassava, equivalent to 600 thousand tons of cassava tubers. If a farmer household plants over 2 hectares on average, there will be 15 thousand households producing raw material for each factory”, said Mr. Nguyen Sinh Khang, Deputy General Director of PVN.

It is calculated that when first introduced to the market, clean fuel constituted 0.1% of the total petroleum demand in the country and the rate is likely to increase to 1% in 2015. In addition, when PVN and PV OIL raise the rate of pure gasoline to 10% in its future products – the E10 and E15 gasoline, the quantity of raw materials will have to increase to meet production demand. This means that hundreds of households will have the chance to join hands with the PVN in the project of economic development.

Is clean gasoline consumer friendly?

Clean gasoline has been introduced to the market since the beginning of August, sold in 12 experimental locations in 5 provinces. Overall it has sold quite well because its current price per liter is 500 dong lower than that of the A92 gasoline. However, in the long run it is doubtful whether the price of clean gasoline will continue in the direction of being "consumer friendly" or not. It is observed that in other developed countries in Europe or North America production cost of biological fuel is relatively high and Vietnam is unlikely to be an exception. The current low price seems to be just a "strategy" to attract customers at first to buy PVN’s newly launched fuel products.

On the other hand, considering the aspect of national benefit, biological fuel has helped Viet Nam to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels as well as enhance energy security and cut down the amount of imported oil. It also creates favorable conditions by forming a new way for farmers to improve their economic situations. Moreover, bio fuel also helps improve the quality of people's lives by significantly reducing toxic emissions into the environment.

Therefore, the government has set out to create a specific schedule for the establishment of a clean fuel market as a part of the biofuel development project for 2015 and vision for 2025.