Japan’s Itochu on the hunt for local partners

Itochu Corp. of Japan is looking for local partners willing to help bring into the country its line of convenience stores, Internet shops and even business process outsourcing firms.

Kenichi Hisatomi, general manager of the local unit of Itochu, said in a recent briefing that the company wanted to bring its other units to the Philippines to take advantage of the Filipinos’ increasing purchasing power.

“Population is growing with very young people who can spend money on merchandise or Internet. We can do same business model as [we did] in Japan,” Hisatomi said.

Parent firm Itochu is engaged in the trading of various products such as textile, machinery, metals, minerals, chemicals and food. It is also into information and communications technology, real estate, insurance, logistics, construction and finance.

Hisatomi, meanwhile, also disclosed that affiliate Green Future Innovations Inc. is on track to start the commercial operations of its $120-million integrated ethanol facility in Isabela.

The construction of the ethanol processing plant, which has a projected capacity of 50 million liters annually, and the 19-megawatt biomass power facility had been delayed due to typhoons last year.

The integrated facility was originally scheduled to be up and running by March of this year.

Green Future Innovations is a joint venture among Itochu, JGC Corp., Philippine Bioethanol and Energy Investments Corp. and Taiwanese holding company GCO.

Green Future earlier said that it planned to offer 13 MW of the 19-MW capacity to the Luzon grid to shore up the power supply in the province and other neighboring areas.

With the completion of this facility, Green Future will be the fourth company in the Philippines to operate an ethanol facility in the country, following San Carlos Bioenergy Inc., Roxol Bioenergy and Leyte Agri Corp.—Amy R. Remo