CASSAVA NEWS: Hoang Kim select and review of Cassava News in Center Point. Zambia: Mansa scientists develop resistant cassava. Vietnam's Environment-friendly Fuel Fails To Attract Consumer. Biological fuel fails to attract consumers.Biogasoline sales to resume next month. China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement leads to new business opportunities. (TIN SẮN: Hoàng Kim tuyển chọn và điểm tin sắn nổi bật: Zambia các nhà khoa học Mansa phát triển giống sắn kháng bệnh. Nhiên liệu thân thiện với môi trường của Việt Nam chưa hấp dẫn người tiêu dùng, giá bán xăng E5 là 15.500 đ so giá xăng A92 là 16.000đ chưa hấp dẫn lái xe và họ còn e ngại chất lượng. Nhiên liệu sinh học tiếp tục được bán ở các tháng tiếp theo để tiếp thị. Hiệp định Thương mại Tự do Trung Quốc -ASEAN dẫn đến các cơ hội kinh doanh mới).
Zambia: Mansa scientists develop resistant cassava
Lusaka Times, Aug 6, 2010
THE Zambia Agriculture Research Institute, under the Mansa Research Station, has started developing cassava varieties which are resistant to diseases. ...
This is to counter the many diseases affecting cassava in Luapula Province, resulting in low yield. Mansa Research Station root and tuber programme officer Martin Chiona said the disease-resistant crop will help farmers to harvest more cassava. He said the cassava mosaic disease, which is transmitted by the white fly, is the most common. “Cassava is the staple food in Luapula Province, but farmers are not harvesting enough because of diseases,” he said. Dr Chiona said the cassava mealie bug and green mite are the other pests which affect cassava. He said the government has realised that if diseases and pests are not controlled, they may spread to other provinces. Dr Chiona said the other factor which makes cassava important is that the people of Luapula Province depend on its leaves as the most commonly eaten vegetable during the dry season. He said the Mansa Research Station is also contemplating improving the protein content in cassava. Dr Chiona said the improvement of protein in cassava will make it compete with maize. He said it is important to increase the cassava yield, especially that some local and foreign companies have expressed interest in buying it for starch processing.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
Vietnam's Environment-friendly Fuel Fails To Attract Consumer
Bernama - Aug 3, 2010
HANOI, Aug 3 (Bernama) -- Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group produced an environmentally friendly fuel, which went on sale on Aug 1, but it failed to attract motorists, Vietnam news agency reported Tuesday.
Biological E5 ethanol, a mixture of of 95 percent A92 petrol and five percent bio-ethanol produced from cassava, tobacco and sugar cane, is now available at 20 filling stations in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province and northern Hai Phong and Hai Duong provinces. E5 petrol was launched as part of the government's biofuel development master plan. A petrol pump attendant Nguyen Van Duc said only a few motorists demand for E5 petrol compare to the normal A92 petrol."There were typically long queues of drivers waiting to pump A92 petrol," he said, adding that E5 petrol is cheaper. E5 costs 15,500 VND (US$0.80) per litre, while regular A92 costs about 16,000 VND (US$8.4) per litre.
The reason for the low demand, says Duc, is because many people is not aware about the E5 petrol while those that are familiar with it, are hesitant to change and unsure about the petrol's quality. Meanwhile, Nguyen Xuan Son, director general of Viet Nam Petrol Oil Corporation, said E5 had been thoroughly tested to ensure it was suitable for all vehicles. E5 petrol will next go on sale at three stations in central Da Nang city, three in central Thua Thien-Hue province and five in the Mekong Delta's Can Tho city. It will be sold at more than 4,000 stations by the end of 2012.
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Biological fuel fails to attract consumers
AsiaOne - Aug 4, 2010
HA NOI - Biological E5 ethanol, produced by Viet Nam National Oil and Gas Group, officially went on sale on Sunday, but the environmentally friendly fuel has yet to be embraced by motorists.
The fuel; a mixture of 95 per cent A92 petrol and 5 per cent bio-ethanol produced from cassava, tobacco and sugar cane; is now available at 20 filling stations in Ha Noi, HCM City, southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province and northern Hai Phong and Hai Duong provinces. However, demand is limited. At Ha Noi-based Thai Thinh filling station, there were typically long queues of drivers waiting for A92 petrol yesterday, but few callers for E5. Nguyen Van Duc, a petrol pump attendant, said few motorist wanted E5 petrol, even though it was cheaper than other kinds of fuel. E5 costs VND15,500 (S$1.10) per litre, while regular A92 costs about VND16,000 (U$8.4) per litre. "Many people do not know about this kind of petrol, while those that are familiar with it are hesitant to change their behaviour and are not sure about quality," Duc said. However, he said the number of motorists using E5 had gradually increased partly because it was cheaper but also because it was "cleaner and safer."He said motorists should be made fully aware of E5's benefits. "I didn't know that E5 was already on sale," Tran Hoang Nam, a motorist from Hai Ba Trung District, said. "I have no idea if the fuel is as good as regular petrol, so I will wait until it becomes more popular," he said. Nguyen Xuan Son, director general of Viet Nam Petrol Oil Corporation, said E5 had been thoroughly tested to ensure it was suitable for all vehicles. E5 petrol was launched as part of the Government's biofuel development master plan (up to 2015). E5 petrol will next go on sale at three stations in central Da Nang City, three in central Thua Thien-Hue Province and five in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta's Can Tho City. It will be sold at more than 4,000 stations by the end of 2012.
Biogasoline sales to resume next month
Thanh Nien Daily - Jul 29, 2010
Ethanol can replace other harmful substances and make gasoline products less polluting, he said. Ethanol is made from crops like cassava and sugarcane. ... China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement leads to new business opportunities.
An ethanol gasoline product will be sold in five large cities in Vietnam next month, nearly two years after its sales were halted due to the lack of quality standards for biofuel, the producer said Thursday. E5 gasoline, a blend of 5 percent ethanol and 95 percent gasoline, will be retailed at VND15,450 per liter, slightly lower than prices of the popular A92 gasoline, local news website VnExpress reported, citing PetroVietnam Oil Corporation. Ly Hong Duc, deputy general director of PetroVietnam Oil Corporation, said the product has been tested on various kinds of vehicles and shown good results. Ethanol can replace other harmful substances and make gasoline products less polluting, he said. Ethanol is made from crops like cassava and sugarcane. The E5 gasoline was first launched in the market in September 2008 on a trial basis, but sales were halted six days later as there was no standard system for the product at the time. The government issued regulations on quality management of biofuel products last year. PetroVietnam Oil Corporation is a subsidiary of state-owned gas and oil group PetroVietnam. The group plans to supply 240 million liters of E5 to local consumers in 2012 through 4,300 stations, compared to only 20 stations next month, according to VnExpress. The group is building three new ethanol plants in Vietnam with a total investment of US$240 million, the news source said.
Source: Thanh Nien
China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement leads to new business opportunities
People's Daily Online - Jul 26, 2010
In the future, Guangxi State Farms will invest in building projects such as processing cassava starch and ethanol. "We have come to realize the importance ... With the establishment of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, there will be a new tide of investment in ASEAN countries, said Gu Xiaosong, vice president of the Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences.
"Agricultural project cooperation is taking the lead in investment and building factories in ASEAN countries," Gu said. After the establishment of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area in January 2010, 90 percent of trade products now enjoy zero tariffs. In the first half of this year, the total value of China-ASEAN two-way trade reached 136.5 billion U.S. dollars, growing by nearly 55 percent compared with the same period last year. Exports to ASEAN countries reached 64.6 billion U.S. dollars, up by more 45 percent, and imports from ASEAN countries reaching nearly 72 billion U.S. dollars, up by 64 percent. From 2003 to 2008, China's direct investments in ASEAN rose from 230 million U.S. dollars to nearly 2.2 billion U.S. dollars, increasing nearly nine-fold. By April 2010, the total cumulative value of China-ASEAN two-way investments had reached 70 billion U.S. dollars, of which, China's investments in ASEAN accounted for 10 billion U.S. dollars. At present, ASEAN has become the largest overseas partner of Guangxi State Farms. Yang Haikong, deputy director of the Guangxi State Farms Bureau, said that these outreach projects mainly include the China-Indonesia Economic and Trade Zone, which has a usable area of 5 square kilometers and investments of about 650 million yuan for the first stage. Guangxi State Farms will also invest nearly 360 million yuan to establish a cassava starch processing base in Qui Nhon, Vietnam. It will also establish a high-quality sisal base and cassava production base in the northern part of Myanmar with an area of 100 square kilometers and a primary total investment of 13.8 million US dollars. Furthermore, it will also establish a 10-square-kilometer cassava raw materials base in Mindanao, Philippines. In the future, Guangxi State Farms will invest in building projects such as processing cassava starch and ethanol. "We have come to realize the importance of making full use of policies. A number of preferential policies for free economic and trade zones are waiting for us to excavate and use, and in this way, it will formulate a win-win situation for everyone involved," said Lourdes Mediran, chief executive officer of the International Exhibition Center of the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry. On July 13, the ASEAN Secretariat and officials from the department in charge of economy and trade under ASEAN countries, including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, came to Nanning to attend a 20-day seminar on the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement. "The seminar provided a communication platform to improve the bilateral cooperation between China and ASEAN," said Zheng Junjian, the China-ASEAN Expo's general secretary of the Secretariat. "ASEAN countries mainly depend on exports to the European Union and the U.S. market, which were greatly influenced during the financial crisis. Given that some of the ASEAN countries' traditional trade partners suffered zero or even negative growth, China's big market of 1.3 billion people is a great opportunity for the ASEAN nations," said Zhang Xuegang, researcher from the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations. "East Asia will also consolidate its position as the engine of global recovery with the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area in the lead."
By People's Daily Online
