VILNIUS - Linas ir Viza, a company trading in plant products, announced plans to build the largest methyl ester production facility in the Baltics in the Klaipeda Free Economic Zone beginning this fall.
The company said it intended to invest some 108 million litas (52 million euros) in the new facility, which will have the capacity to produce 115,000 tons of methyl ester from rapeseed oil per year. The new plant is scheduled to start operating in 2006.
Arunas Jarmolavicius, investment director at Linas ir Viza, said methyl ester would be exported from the port of Klaipeda to other European countries.
Rape methyl ester is used to produce biofuel, lubricants, detergents and other products.
The new plant, which will be operated by Mestilla, a Klaipeda-based company, will purchase rapeseed from local farmers and import some from Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia.
Linas ir Viza, which is based in Panevezys, trades in grain, oilseeds, oil and fodder ingredients in international markets. It sells more than 100,000 tons of rapeseed abroad annually.
Last year the company bought a 60 percent stake in Rosenkrantz, one of Denmark's largest grain and fodder producers.
Linas ir Viza posted revenues of 220 million litas for the financial year ending July 1, 2004.
