Greenergy International Ltd, a fuel supplier in the UK, announced a joint venture with Bauche Group (30%), a company in the sugarcane industry, to source and sell sustainable Brazilian bioethanol. The new business, Greenergy Brazil headquartered in Sao Paulo, has been established to meet increasing demand for UK RTFO and EU Renewable Energy Directive compliant bioethanol.
Greenergy supplies a number of UK fuel companies and forecourt operators with Brazilian bioethanol and has established a sustainability audit program for producers in Brazil. The joint venture will help secure future supplies of sustainable product, reduce the overall cost of buying bioethanol and secure Greenergy’s role an inland supplier to the UK and Europe. In 2010 traded volumes are expected to exceed 600,000 cbm, of which approximately 50% will be supplied by Greenergy into the UK market. These levels are expected to more than double over the next 3 years as obligated biofuel inclusion levels increase across Europe.
Bauche Group has an established presence in Brazil with trading relationships with local mills and has been working with Greenergy to establish best practice suppliers of sustainably sourced and traceable bioethanol for movement into the UK and Europe.
The joint venture will strengthen Greenergy’s commercial relationships with Brazilian producers and, as a significant direct inland buyer, will give it further leverage in influencing the take up of its sustainability criteria by bioethanol mill owners. It will also underpin the delivery of Greenergy’s UK Flexibio product guaranteeing RTFO or RED compliant biofuel to major oil companies to offset their RTFO and RED compliance risk.
“Greenergy Brazil secures our presence in a territory recognised for its leadership in the delivery of low carbon intensity high quality bioethanol. We now have outstanding access to significant volumes of pre-certified product that meets and exceeds RTFO and RED sustainability requirements and are ideally placed to capitalise on growing demand for RED compliant product in Europe,” Andrew Owens, Greenergy Chief Executive, said.
Greenergy said it has been auditing in Brazil since 2007, working with suppliers as part of an ongoing commercial relationship to support them in the implementation of environmental and social sustainability. The sustainability program continues to expand, with six new mills passing third party audits for the first time in November and December 2009 and a further four mills due to pass an audit in January and February 2010.
100% of the bioethanol supplied from Brazil through Greenergy Brazil to Europe will comply with the company’s gold standard sustainability criteria.
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