Construction of a large-scale 90-million-litres bioethanol production facility is expected to start in the second quarter of next year, a Central Energy Fund (CEF) official said on Friday.

CEF biofuels project manager Sibusiso Ngubane stated that this project was a joint venture between State-owned financier, the Industrial Development Corporation, CEF, and Sugar Beet South Africa.

The R1,3-billion production facility would be based in Cradock in the Eastern Cape, Ngubane told Engineering News Online.

Ngubane said that the finance for the construction of the plant had been secured and that the project was progressing on schedule with construction anticipated to begin after April.

The Cradock-based plant would produce 90-million litres of bioethanol a year from sugar beet, which was an abundant crop in the Eastern Cape.

Ngubane elaborated that sugar beet was a good crop for the production of biofuels and the tests that had been conducted thus far had produced "exciting yields".

In terms of the food-versus-fuel debate, Ngubane said that sugar beet was a new crop that did not compete with South Africa's traditional food production.

Production of bioethanol from the plant in Cradock was anticipated to start in the second quarter of 2011.