Giovanni Venturini Del Greco, Agroils’ business development manager, biodiesel made from jatropha would be used mostly locally and named Cameroon railways as potential client.
Agroils has financed the research and development phase of its jatropha projects with its own cash but would have to turn to external financing to bring them to an industrial output stage, Venturini said.
Agroils had land concessions or worked in partnerships with local farmers providing them with inputs such as fertilisers and machinery in exchange for guaranteed seed sales in the future and did not plan to buy land overseas, Venturini said.
He said the projects had nothing to do with the so-called land-grabbing when investors from richer countries buy or lease farming land in poor nations and use crops grown there for consumption in their home countries.
“Ours are sustainable projects. We develop them together with local communities and they are based on cooperation,” he said.
