Soaring oil prices propel biofuels into global mainstream

Record high oil prices have propelled biofuels from niche player to the multi-billions dollar commodity mainstream, causing an explosion in new ventures and investor interest that has fired up global agricultural markets.
From the sugar plantations of Brazil to the rapeseed fields of France, and the US corn belt to Malaysia’s palm forests, a search for what’s been dubbed the new “green gold” is under way.

“A victim of its own success, we’ve seen the first tensions appear on Brazilian and American biofuel markets as prices have risen,” the Paris-based Cyclope commodity analysts said.
“The management of these tensions will show whether ethanol has really entered a new golden age and if it can be defined as a ‘strategic commodity’,” they said in their 2006 report.

Gulf Times