RPT-Brazil to double ethanol exports - minister http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=economicNews&storyID=2007-02-05T010424Z_01_L04477857_RTRIDST_0_BRAZIL-ETHANOL-EXPORTS-REPEAT.XML
Sun Feb 4, 2007
(Repeats for wider distribution)
LONDON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Brazil hopes to double its ethanol exports by 2010 to meet growing demand for the alternative fuel, largely from Japan and Sweden, Finance Minister Guido Mantega was quoted as telling the Times newspaper in an interview.
He also urged Britain to use more ethanol as part of the fight against global warming, according to the British daily.
Brazil aimed to increase its ethanol exports to $1.3 billion in 2010 from $600 million in 2005, largely due to agreements signed with Tokyo and Stockholm, Mantega was quoted as saying in comments published on Monday.
"We would like the majority of countries to adopt these alternative sources of energy and fuel," he told the Times.
"In the UK ... it's possible to give more importance to ethanol. We can develop joint projects in such a way that we can introduce these alternative energy sources into regular consumption here," Mantega said, speaking on a trip to London.
Brazil, the world's biggest ethanol exporter, started to develop ethanol production from sugar cane in the 1970s.
Mantega said he hoped the latest round of world trade talks would help open the U.S. market to Brazil's ethanol.
"Our costs are 50 percent lower and the quality of the energy source is higher than the ethanol made from corn (maize) in America. So we can have more co-operation with America if they open the possibility for more imports from Brazil of ethanol and other agricultural products," Mantega said.
He also touched on the importance of protecting Brazil's Amazon forest, the largest rainforest that has been called the lungs of the world. "If other countries want to keep an atmosphere that has less pollution, these countries should help Brazil with material resources in such a way that we could have much more rigorous surveillance.
As for Brazil's economy, Mantega said the country was set to experience an economic growth rate of between 4.5 percent and 5 percent in the coming years, according to the Times.
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