It is within this context that a conference will be hosted in Cape Town next month, which will examine the potential of the African biofuels market.

The third annual Biofuels Markets Africa conference will bring together executives from across Africa to discuss strategies that will enhance development of a sustainable regional biofuels industry.

The objective of the conference is to provide executives with information relating to biofuels business opportunities on the continent, how sustainable biofuels production can be assured, how investment can be secured, and how African feedstock suppliers can get involved in supplying European markets.

Crucially, the conference will also deal wth the question of how Africa can adapt to a bioenergy economy and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

Speakers at the conference will include government representatives from South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia as well as high-profile industry representatives from the UK, the Netherlands, Norway and Burkina Faso.
It is expected that the conference will be well attended as more than 400 execu- tives have attended the annual conference over the last two years.

This conference is appropriately timed as the biofuels sector has been receiving increased attention, particularly in South Africa, over the last year.

In particular, the approval of the Biofuel Industrial Strategy for South Africa by the Department of Minerals and Energy, in December last year, provides fresh impetus to the biofuels market in South Africa, providing a foundation and road map to push the market forward.

The biofuels draft strategy aims to achieve a biofuels average market penetration of 4,5% of liquid road transport fuels, both petrol and diesel, in South Africa ,by 2013, which is achievable without excessive support through the use of surplus agricultural capacity.

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