Brazil Seeks Partnership with India to Convert Ethanol Into Global Commodity

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Minister of Mines and Energy, Bento Albuquerque, said he believes in a partnership between Brazil and India to convert ethanol into a global commodity. On Thursday, January 23rd, the Minister took part in a seminar on business opportunities between the two countries in the areas of energy and mining, in New Delhi, India.

“Brazil is the largest producer of sugarcane ethanol in the world. India is the world’s largest producer of sugarcane and I think we can and should cooperate in this field,” the minister said in an interview with TV Brasil. “This cooperation involves the development of technologies and its purpose will benefit everyone. It is ethanol, the biofuel, becoming an international commodity,” he added.

According to the Minister, this is a strategic cooperation between the two countries because India has the fastest-growing energy market in the world and should become the world’s main energy importer in the coming years. The Asian country imports 80 percent of the oil it consumes, and one of its exporters is Brazil. The product is the most important item in bilateral trade between the two countries.

“Brazil already enjoys this relationship with India and we have become oil exporters since last year; our production is increasing, it will continue to increase and we believe that imports from India will grow in the coming years. India will be the largest energy importer in the world,” he said.

“We are talking about two large countries, Brazil is the ninth economy in the world, India is the fifth. We have tremendous synergies in the sectors of energy, oil, gas, biofuels, solar and wind power generation, as well as biomass and mining,” said Albuquerque.

The Minister underlined the Indian interest in increasing investments in the energy sector in the country. Currently, India is investing in power transmission. Indian companies may also start to operate in the power generation segment.

As for the mining sector, Brazil intends to increase the export of gold to India. “We already export gold to India and we can greatly increase this cooperation. India holds approximately 95 mineral commodities and Brazil around 80. We have much to learn and exchange in this sector,” said the Minister.

Data from the Ministry show that the mineral sector closed 2019 with a US$21.9 (R$90) billion surplus, with exports of US$46.5 billion and imports of US$24.6 billion.

The minerals sector represented 20.8 percent of the US$224 billion in goods exported by Brazil.