Above: the opening of the plant in Catacamas (OAS Photo)
By the Caribbean Journal staff
Honduras has opened its first ethanol plant in the eastern portion of the country.
It plant is part of a wider initiative led by the Organization of American States to broaden cooperation on biofuels within the hemisphere.
The plant was developed with the support of the governments of both Brazil and the United States and the OAS.
The eventual goal for Honduras is to develop a viable bioethanol industry in the country.
“My intention is [for Honduras] to go back to being the breadbasket of Central America,” Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez said at the inauguration ceremony. “That the people can come back to the field and we can make that activity the most
profitable in the trade and consumption of quality foods, such as rice, beans, corn and other activities.”
The plant, which is an ethanol biorefinery, is located in the city of Catacamas in the department of Colancho, located at the headquarters of the National Agricultural University.
“We are witnessing something more than the inauguration of a plant,” said OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza. “A country that does not have access to energy is a country that cannot satisfy the basic needs of its citizens like transportation, nutrition, employment, and economic and social development.”
Insulza said the inauguration of the plant was a “concrete action by Honduras toward development,” contributing to the diversification of the country’s energy matrix.
“The opening of this plant is a concrete example of the things that we must achieve in this region, where many documents are signed by they don´t always bear fruit,” he said. “Here is a very clear justification for the kind of alliances that we want to contribute to: participation of governments, – in this case three – of universities, and of international organizations, which is a virtuous cycle of international cooperation, and for the good of a country, in which we are working to produce a fair, democratic social development.”