Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz


Vereinigte BioEnergie AG, a Germany-based holding company that primarily produces biodiesel and bioethanol to deliver to European petroleum companies, has agreed to work on the development of an irrigation project in the southern provinces of Cañete and Chincha.

The German company, which produces 450,000 tons of biodiesel and 300,000 of bioethanol a year, made an agreement with Compania Electrica El Platanal (Celepsa).

The two companies have planned to irrigate and work 27,000 hectares of uncultivated land in Cañete and Chincha, two provinces south of Lima.

With this new project, two of Chincha's most agricultural areas will be expanded by the private companies.

It was reported that Celepsa had already presented the project to Peru’s Private Investment Promotion Agency (Pro Inversion), explaining that a reservoir would create a surplus of water and provide the necessary irrigation to cultivate the unused land.

According to Pedro Lerner Rizo Patron, the general manager of Celepsa, his company and Vereinigte BioEnergie AG will invest $400 million in the project if it is approved by Pro Inversion.

If authorized, the project would begin at the beginning of 2010.