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G.R.N. Somashekar

Bio-fuel opportunity: Mr Arvind Pandalai, Chairman, STCL Ltd and Chairman and MD, STC, and Mr K.C. Ponnana, Managing Director, STCL, addressing a press conference in Bangalore on Wednesday. —

Our Bureau

Bangalore, July 9 To tap the potential of jatropha bio-fuel for expanding product portfolio, STC plans to acquire vast tracts of land in Surinam and Indonesia to grow the plant and market the oil to end users.

The trading house is keen to take the local governments as partners in the proposed venture.

Sharing this information with media persons here on Wednesday, Mr Arvind Pandalai, Chairman and Managing Director, STC, said, “we are looking at 50,000 hectares of land in Surinam for growing jatropha”. He said the land acquisition would be done over a period.

Mr Pandalai said STC had successfully conducted a research on a small parcel of land in Surinam to achieve the fruition of jatropha seeds in less than a year, against the normal four years the plant takes.

Oil extracted from jatropha can be used as bio-fuel, varnish, and medicine for skin care. STC was looking at the opportunity for bio-fuel from the plant.

STC was looking for funding from a UK organisation for its research to standardise the variety it had developed. Without giving details, STC hoped to raise $2.5 million for the purpose from a UK private equity. He did not give details.

Earlier, addressing a press conference on the performance of STCL (formerly Spices Trading Corporation), Mr K.C. Ponnana, Managing Director, said that the trading house expects its export turnover to increase by 50 per cent during the current fiscal over last year’s $447 million. The company’s overall sales income during 2007-09 was Rs 2,440.09 crore.

Mr Ponnana said as STCL was not a big player in the US market, its export income would not be affected during the current fiscal. It expected the new markets in Africa, Latin America, Far East and the CIS countries to buoy its turnover.

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