Biofuel venture at sugar plant ‘must happen quickly’

AN investor willing to spend up to €95 million will have to be found within the next 12 months if the former Mallow sugar factory is to have a future as a biofuel manufacturer, it was warned yesterday.

The warning followed the publication of a expert report, commissioned by Cork County Council, which showed that producing ethanol from sugar beet was technically and financially viable at the plant.

Greencore closed the plant last March with the loss of more than 200 jobs.

While the report was welcomed by a number of officials and farmers, Tom Barry, of the Southern Beet Growers’ Association, said that the project would need to proceed quickly or beet growers would move out of the business.

He said that with subsidies growers could achieve very good profits from the venture and more than 400 of them in the region had signed up to support it.

At a press conference in the Hibernian Hotel, Mallow, Sharon Corcoran, the county council’s director of infrastructure, said the report had been given to the factory’s owner, Greencore, as well as a number of government departments and the Ministerial Taskforce on Biofuels, which is expected to outline a national strategy before then end of the year.

European countries produce around 5.75% of the fuel needs through biofuels, whereas in this country the figure is less than half that.

If an investor is found, then the plant could process 170 million litres of ethanol annually and lead to the creation of 50 jobs.

Cllr Alan Coleman, who is a farmer, said there was no way in his opinion that the Government would set up a semi-state body to run such an operation.

“If investors don’t come forward quickly, this opportunity will be lost,” he said.