By Michael
Byrnes
SYDNEY (Reuters) - If Australia
replaces even a small percentage of its plastic bags
with biodegradable carriers made from grains, it would
boost demand for wheat and other grains by 500 percent
over 15 years.
"Alternative uses for
starches are just going through the roof. (It) is
absolutely massive," Kim Hatton, analyst with
Pocknee and Associates Consulting, who prepared a
report for the Australian grains industry, told Reuters.
Old fashioned starch is an
emerging star as a replacement for petrochemicals
in biodegradable plastics, tennis shoes, disposable
knives, forks and plates, edible crayons, wheat-based
kitty litter, and much more
Grains are also seen as a major new raw material in
Australia for automobile fuel, pharmaceuticals, livestock
feed and meat substitutes.
A report by Pocknee for Australia's
annual Grains Week conference last week forecast that
demand for the country's grains would jump massively,
to 179 million tons in 2020 from around 40 million
at present.
Demand for cereals for starch
production alone was seen rising to 56.6 million tons
in 2020 from nil in 2005. Demand for cereals for ethanol
production by 2020 was forecast to rise to 17.6 million
tons from 165,000 tons in 2005, while total demand
for cereals for emergent uses was seen jumping to
120.7 million tons from only 501,000 tones in 2005.
The forecasts stunned major
players in Australia's normally divisive grains industry
into pledges of co-operation to produce efficiencies
and increased yields to boost supply.