UK firm to invest in Philippine biodiesel project

Pacific Bio-Fields Holdings Plc said it has received approval to use 400,000 hectares of land to plant coconut trees in the Philippines to make biodiesel, which it aims to sell to the Japanese market in five years. The company, which plans to list on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) later this year, said the agreement allows it exclusively to cultivate unused public land on the northern main island of Luzon for free for up to 50 years. “It is the first time the Philippine government has allowed any local or foreign company to use land for a coconut oil-made biodiesel project,” Yuji Taniguchi, head of the U.K.-based holding company with its main operations in Japan and the Philippines, told a group of reporters. (June 19, 2009)