Alcohol producers seek approval to import ethanol

Alcohol producers have requested the Government to give them the approval to import corn for ethanol production, if there is any effect on the price of chicken meat and eggs by getting locally grown corn to make ethanol needed for alcohol production.

They also say that the amount of corn used to make ethanol is a small amount and this too is largely from stocks categorized as not fit for human consumption. Alcohol producers claim that the country’s annual corn requirement is about 700,000 metric tons, of which 15,000 tons are used for ethanol production.

This group says that out of the 15,000 metric tons obtained, about 9,000 metric tons is given as animal feed, which is a byproduct of ethanol production. They say that the production of maize in this country is about 300,000 metric tons and the rest is imported.

They claim that when the same accusation was made during the previous government, they asked to import corn for ethanol production, but the government did not approve it citing the protection of the local farmer and other reasons.

They say that the grade one category of maize is used for human consumption and only the third grade category is used for ethanol production.

Liquor manufacturers say that the records of the amount of corn used for ethanol production with an additional tax of Rs. 10 can be obtained from the Excise Department.

They claim that it is reported that there is a large amount of ethanol produced from sugarcane in the country and they suspect that such a situation has arisen due to the fact that these institutions have prioritized the production of ethanol instead of producing sugar.

Currently, the selling price of a kilo of imported sugar is Rs. 248 and the selling price of a kilo of sugar produced in our country is 370. Due to this, foreign exchange is spent on sugar import on a large scale. Thus, by finding out the reasons for the excessive increase in the price of domestically produced sugar, reducing the production cost and sending it to the market equal to the price of imported sugar, our country can save on foreign exchange spent on importing sugar.

In the recent discussion with the President’s Secretary, most of the alcohol producers had refused to take ethanol produced from sugarcane and said that the surplus ethanol stock can be used to make products such as thinner and paints in the country.

They point out that currently the ethanol needed by those factories is being imported at a low price, and if this ethanol can be provided at that price, the country can save foreign exchange.

They say that another reason for the increase in ethanol stocks more than the demand is the permission given to a few producers to produce ethanol.

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