The Pan-African Meeting Place for the Biofuels Industry
Cape Town, South Africa, 20-21 November 2008

The 3rd annual Biofuels Markets Africa conference took place in Cape Town on 20-21 November 2008. With the new Biofuels Industrial Strategy in place, South Africa faces new challenges regarding biofuels production, feedstocks and investments. In highly interactive debates South Africa’s new role in the African biofuels market and the need for a clarification of the Industrial Strategy were discussed.

South Africa is still one of the key players in the African biofuels markets but other countries like Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya are quickly catching up. More and more producers are looking at Jatropha as a potential source for biofuels to move away from food crops towards a more sustainable way of producing biofuels.  Case studies from across Africa showed the potential of biofuels in Africa, addressed land issues and provided insight into sustainability and technical developments.

The conference brought together biofuels experts from all across Africa and highlighted current developments and challenges in the biofuels market. There are still issues which need to be resolved but Africa is on its way and has the potential to be a global biofuels market player.