Brazil having a hard time selling its biodiesel in Europe

Brazil's President Inázio Lula da Silva visited Europe not long ago and he promoted the benefits of Brazilian biodiesel in France and Spain. This might have seemed like a good idea, if it weren't for the fact that Spain's biggest oil company, Repsol, had just frozen the construction of a new biodiesel plant alongside the country's largest refinery in Tarragona. This leaves Brazil with just one relatively large oil company, Portugal's Galp, to distribute its biodiesel in the Old Continent. So, what about France, Europe's fourth largest biodiesel market? Brazil announced it would purchase French nuclear techology in exchange for, well, biodiesel. But France's largest oil company, Total, already produces enough for domestic needs. Perhaps Brazil should focus on the home market: Brazil will soon increase its own mandatory biodiesel blend to 4 percent (B4). The current blend is B3, and that was raised just a few months ago.
[Source: Econoticias / Econoticias]