The macaúba (Acrocomia aculeata), an abundant palm native to Brazil, will be important raw material for biodiesel, according to Entaban Ecoenergetics of Brazil, a partnership of Spanish and Brazilian capital. The project, already under way, is to use some 60,000 hectares in the eastern state of Minas Gerais to supply five oil-producing plants.

It will become the first commercial crop of this species, which is found in nearly all of Latin America but most abundant in the Cerrado, the extensive savanna in central Brazil.

The productivity of the macaúba is about equal to that of the African palm, leader in the world market for vegetable oils. The advantage of the macaúba is that it has adapted to a variety of climates and soils, while the African is limited to the equatorial region, Entaban Brazil manager Leonardo Pimentel told Tierramérica.