04/12/2007 (Bangkok Post) - Jatropha farmers want the Energy Ministry to guarantee the buying price of pure jatropha oil at a minimum of 35 baht per litre, to promote the production of biodiesel from non-food crops. The price guarantee would help attract farmers to expand plantations for jatropha, a cactus-like plant, to one million rai in three years from 100,000 rai, making more supply available to biodiesel makers, said Phichai Tinsuntisook, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries' renewable energy industry club.

Mr Phichai said a higher supply of jatropha oil could help farmers deliver goods at competitive prices in line with higher economies of scale.

The FTI had earlier requested a guarantee for prices of jatropha seeds but has now decided that guaranteeing jatropha oil prices would be more effective.

''We had asked the government to guarantee seed prices at five to six baht per kilogramme, but nobody can guarantee how much oil can be produced from seeds, so it is hard for our customers, biodiesel makers, to calculate costs,'' Mr Phichai said.

The proposed guaranteed buying price of 35 baht per litre of jatropha oil was on par with the minimum guaranteed buying price for crude palm oil, from which most biodiesel is now made.

However, Mr Phichai forecast that crude palm oil prices would rise, while jatropha oil would be stay at its guaranteed level of 35 baht per litre, so its lower costs would help drawing biodiesel customers.

Jatropha seed prices would rise, but not to more than 8-9 baht a kilogramme, if the government agreed to guarantee the buying price of jatropha oil.

The increasing price of seeds was attributed to the fact that biodiesel producers would compete to buy them, aiming at cutting their production costs.

Thailand would need one million litres of biodiesel per day from April 2008 now that the government plans to enforce mandatory use of B2 biodiesel, a mixture of 2% biofuel and 98% diesel, to replace high speed diesel.

The Jatropha oil output from one million rai of crops would be equivalent to one million litres of biodiesel per day and 200 megawatts of electricity from biomass power plants.

Only 500,000 litres of crude palm oil per day are reserved for biodiesel production next year, said Mr Phichai.

Thailand can produce one million tonnes of crude from palm oil per year, with only 100,000 tonnes used by other industries aside from food processing.

''Jatropha oil can be a substitute for crude palm oil shortage or even the first choice for biodiesel,'' said Mr Phichai.

Jatropha oil yields in Thailand are 1.2 tonnes per rai per year. Thailand has 100,000 rai of jatropha plantations but only 20,000 are managed commercially.