US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice receives a congratulatory kiss from Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim after they sign an advanced biofuel agreement between the United States and Brazil in Sao Paulo Friday. - Reuters

Brazil and the United States account for about 70 per cent of world ethanol output.

The United States recently displaced Brazil as the world's biggest producer but Brazil remains the most efficient.

A pioneer in biofuels, Brazil began its sugar cane-based ethanol programme 30 years ago when it was importing nearly 90 per cent of its oil needs.

The bulk of U.S. ethanol production is corn-based.

Here are some facts about Brazil's ethanol industry:

Brazil's sugar and ethanol sector is now subsidy free. The U.S. corn-based ethanol industry relies on government support in the form of a tax credit to blend ethanol into gasolene and a tariff on ethanol imports.

Brazilian ethanol yields eight times more energy than is used in its production process, compared to U.S. ethanol that yields between 1.1 and 1.7 times the energy that goes into the production process, a major criticism of U.S. ethanol.

Brazil is the world's largest exporter of ethanol, with the United States accounting for just over half of its 3.5 billion litres shipped abroad in 2006 despite a U.S. 54 cent import tariff on Brazilian ethanol.

Brazil has over 30,000 filling stations that offer pure ethanol fuel and gasoline that is blended with 20-25 per cent ethanol.

Expected to grow

Its 2007/08 ethanol output is expected to grow to over 20 billion litres from 17.7 billion litres last year with heavy investment in the sector including local names such as Cosan, Copersucar and Crystalsev and multinationals such as Cargill Inc., and Louis Dreyfus.

Domestic demand for ethanol is driven by the popularity of the flex-fuel car technology that was launched in 2003 and now makes up 83 per cent of all new vehicle sales. Flex-fuel motors can run on any mix of gasoline or ethanol.

Sao Paulo state is Brazil's biggest cane producer with two-thirds of national output, followed by Parana and Minas Gerais states in the centre-south. In northeast Brazil, Alagoas and Pernambuco are the main producers.

United States president George W. Bush visited Brazil last this week in an effort to promote ethanol as a world commodity an to petroleum.

- Reuters