Trading firm to invest in Philippine jatropha project

Toyota Tsusho Corp., the trading house of the Toyota group of companies, is poised to join the Philippine government’s biofuel program by investing in a large-scale jatropha plantation and biodiesel refinery. Toyota Tsusho, the sixth-largest trading company in the world, plans to initially conduct trial cultivation of jatropha in a one-hectare area and conduct a detailed feasibility study on the biodiesel refinery, according to a draft of an agreement it plans to forge with the government. It will be the sogo sosha’s second biofuel project in the country, after forming a joint venture with Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc. to set up a US$2.4-billion ethanol plant in Bukidnon, using cassava as feedstock and producing 100,000 liters per day. (June 18, 2009)