The Philippines may import around 150 million liters of ethanol this year, mostly from Brazil, as domestic output remains short of demand, a senior government official said Wednesday.

Local production capacity of the biofuel is projected to double to 78 million liters this year from 2009, still far short of the forecast demand of 219 million liters.

“We may end up importing around 150 million liters this year, give or take several tens of millions, depending on local production and availability,” Rafael Coscolluela, vice chairman of the National Biofuels Board told Reuters in a phone interview.

The biofuels board tells oil companies how much ethanol they can import to ensure all domestic output is consumed. The exact volume will be decided by the board at a meeting next week, said Rosemarie Gumera, manager at the Sugar Regulatory Administration. The country last year allowed oil companies to import 184 million litres of ethanol to help meet demand of 208 million litres.

Coscolluela said the import volume this year could go higher with domestic ethanol producers having difficulty sourcing sugar cane which serves as feedstock.

“There seems to be competition for cane because of the high prices of sugar,” he said.

Local sugar prices have jumped more than 40 percent from September, tracking the surge in global prices. US raw sugar futures soared to 29-year highs on Tuesday, with the market well supported by expected buying by No. 1 consumer India, Pakistan, the United States and the Philippines.

Manila last week announced plans to import up to 150,000 tonnes of raw sugar, for delivery between April and July, to build buffer stocks and meet an annual export quota to the United States.

The Philippine government began mandating 5 percent ethanol content in gasoline products in February 2009, following other countries which required the use of bioethanol to stretch fuel supplies.

The ethanol content is set to increase to 10 percent in 2011, which should lift domestic consumption to 461 million liters by next year and further to 536 million litres in 2014, according to government estimates.