The Colombian government is opening a biodiesel processing plant in the northern Honduran region of Sinaloa, Honduran Deputy Agriculture Minister Nehemías Martínez told Tierramérica. The plant will produce more than 7,500 liters daily of fuel made from African palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.), and is part of the cooperation agreement signed by Colombia and Honduras three months ago in the framework of the Puebla Panama Plan for integration, he added.

Colombia will provide technical assistance in setting up the plant, whose cost is about one million dollars. Over the next five years, the government plans to develop 20,000 hectares along the Honduran Atlantic coast to grow African palm to produce the fuel, said Martínez.