by Finnigan wa Simbeye
An ambitious biodiesel project which was
allocated over 8,000 hectares of land by Kisarawe district (Tanzania)
officials in 2008 is in trouble.
Employees and casual workers of
Sun Biofuels Plc said that work at Kisarawe jatropha farm came to a
halt in late September when managers informed over 300 of them to
collect their terminal benefits and leave till further notice. Some
workers of the British firm said they heard reports that the project has
been sold but did not know who bought it.
Saidi Mohammed, an
employee, said the management promised to rehire some of them once the
project gets on firm footing as financial problems have forced
management to suspend work at the site.
Several workers
expressed disgust at the failing jatropha project which is the second
time in less than five years for foreign firms to abandon their jatropha
projects.
Netherlands based BioShape Holdings which acquired
34,000 hectares of land in Kilwa district of Lindi region, abandoned the
farm in November 2009 blaming global recession. BioShape had employed
over 100 people permanently while another 700 were casual labourers.
Efforts to get SBF Managing Director Richard Morgan comment on the
latest development failed as he is reportedly outside the country. But
an official with the company said activities have been temporarily
suspended because of droughts.
“The trees have been so seriously
affected by droughts that we cannot continue to keep people on the job
and pay them salaries,” the official, who declined to identify himself,
said while dismissing allegations that SBF has disposed of the project.
Sun
Biofuels applied for 20,000 ha of land in the district but only managed
to get close to 9,000ha from 11 villages with a population of over
11,200 people, according to local officials.
Initially, district
officials had set the compensation mark at 800m/- after an Ardhi
University expert evaluation of individual plots but at the end of the
compensation process which drew some complaints, less than 300m/- had
been paid.
Targeting to supply the European Union market, SBF
planned to invest 20 million British pounds by 2012 to produce jatropha
seeds for use as raw materials to manufacture biodiesel.
The
decision by European Union countries to ensure that at least 20 percent
of its energy comes from renewable sources attracted a lot of attention
from investors. The EU lured many multinational energy companies such as
SBF to invest in renewable energies in developing countries such
Tanzania, where almost all such projects are on the verge of collapse or
shut down.
Europe’s largest ethanol company, Sekab AB of Sweden
is also struggling to sustain its Bagamoyo sugarcane plantations,
targeted to produce ethanol for consumption in Europe.
Daily News