About 1.5 million tons. This was the volume of corn destined to the production of ethanol in 2018, in the state that is considered the granary of the country. Mato Grosso has been registering a significant increase in local demand since the transformation of the cereal into ethanol began to gain strength in the state. In an interview with the Direct to Point program this week, Ricardo Tomczyk, executive president of the National Union of Ethanol from Corn, says that from 2012, when the first “flex” plant started operating and the economic viability was proven of the bet on corn as raw material, for the production of biofuel, local demand gained strength. The demand is expected to increase further. “Of what was produced of ethanol in the state, more or less 630 million liters were of corn ethanol and the rest of cane ethanol. What we are seeing, in terms not only of Mato Grosso, but of Brazil, the more rigorous growth of ethanol production is coming from the production of corn. Because corn in the Brazilian Midwest, especially Mato Grosso, is a very competitive corn in terms of price”, says the Unem leader. Currently, Mato Grosso has five mills that use corn to produce ethanol. “We have the pioneer in Campos de Júlio, with a very significant production, we have a plant in São José do Rio Claro, a plant in Jaciara, a small plant in Sorriso, which also uses corn as part of its raw material in ethanol production . And we have the pioneer, ‘full’ power plant in Lucas do Rio Verde, which in less than two years has doubled in capacity”. The president explains that the only full-fired power plant in the state began operating in August 2017, and only uses corn in ethanol production, unlike the “flex” plants, where part of the year, of sugarcane and, in the off-season of sugarcane, starts to use corn. With at least five other mills in the pipeline and / or facility in the state, Tomczyk believes that by 2019, the production of corn for the production of biofuels is expected to jump to 2.6 million tons.
Source: Canal Rural