Ethanol production plant set up by Hunza Group, with a cost of Rs 2.25 billion at Shahkot on Chak Jhumra, has started operations leading to provision of around 200 jobs and an expected foreign exchange income of over Rs 3 billion per annum. Ethanol’s demand in the global market is increasing as an alternative fuel thus this sector is also attracting attention of the investors in Pakistan too.
Taking advantage of its potential in Pakistan, Hunza group has set up the plant having large capacity of producing Ethanol with the name of Hunza Distillery. It became operational on January 21, but the final end product started receiving from February 10, said Director of the said Ethanol plant Muhammad Waheed Chaudhry while talking toBusiness Recorder here on Friday.
He claimed that the said plant had been designed as a complete environment friendly unit thus not contributing to increasing environment pollution and generating employment opportunities in the area it is set up. He said that sugar mills had started taking steps for ethanol production and export. ‘At present 98 per cent ethanol being produced in the country is being exported and our plant is also export oriented,’ Waheed Chaudhry added. Chaudhry said that growers were also turning to grow more sugarcane due to better price being offered by Ethanol producers. He said according to media reports exports from Pakistan would cross over 400,000 tons in next few years.
At present seven sugar mills in Sindh and 8 in Punjab are producing Ethanol. Hunza group also own two sugar mills, Waheed Chaudhry said and added that two mills in Punjab are in the phase of expansion and expected to soon go in to Ethanol production. Experts say that Ethanol is in big demand as alternative fuel and its prices in the international market had reached to US 900 dollars per ton while its demand is also on the rise in Far East, Middle East, Turkey and Europe besides other developed countries.
