Southridge to Construct Ethanol Plant in El Salvador 
Southridge Enterprises, Inc. has announced plans to construct an ethanol plant in El Salvador with a capacity of 5 million gallons per year (GPY). This follows an approval from the Government of El Salvador for Southridge to acquire a lease with purchase option of a 25,000 mz parcel land. This new plant will serve as a bridge for the company's ethanol drying facility for dehydration of ethanol imported from Brazil en route to United States.
Southridge plans to export ethanol from Brazil and import it into the United States via its facility in El Salvador where the company can take advantage of the Caribbean Basins Initiative (CBI), a trade agreement signed in 2000 that allows Caribbean and Central American countries to export ethanol into the United States duty-free.
The new site in El Salvador is located in close proximity to a river, making it easily accessible to transport product to an ocean port for transport to the United States. The site has 25,000 mz (approx. 4,500 acres) of land and access to abundant sugar cane production capacity. With an average yield of 30 to 40 tons per acre grown on site, the location will be more than capable of supplying the proposed 5 million gallon per year production plant.
CEO, Ken Milken, commented, “Our initial plans are to build a facility that will have the capacity to dry up to 15MMGY of hydrous ethanol to be imported into the United States. The second phase would be to build the plant capable of producing 5MMGY of ethanol using sugar cane as feedstock. Having the capability to use feedstock grown and cut straight out of our backyard gives us a huge advantage. Bagasse, the fibrous material that remains from sugar cane, will be burned as fuel and cut down our energy costs by 75%. Lower energy and feedstock costs will bring our profits to record highs in the industry.”
“Southridge is very encouraged by this strategic new facility in El Salvador as it will allow the Company to become one of the lowest cost producers in the industry through the benefits of export incentives and supply of its own raw materials. This comparative advantage of vertical integration and production diversification will act as a hedge against rising costs and will ensure the stability of future production levels,” said Milken.
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