John Nichols, president of Almidones Mexicanos in Guadalajara, said, ``There is a high probability that President Fox will approve a sugar fuel- ethanol program.''

Nichols said, ``Mexico is actively evaluating fuel ethanol from sugar because it has a chronic oversupply of sugar, it is a net importer of refined fuels, it has a chronic air quality problem, and it has water quality and supply problems.''

Nichols noted that Mexico still widely uses the oxygenate MTBE, a gasoline additive that has been found to pollute groundwater and has been banned in California and other American states. He estimates that ``to replace MTBE's just in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey, at a 6 percent blend with gasoline, would require enough ethanol to absorb 900,000 tons of Mexican sugar per year.'' Nichols estimated Mexico's sugar surplus, the amount by which its production exceeds consumption, at 400,000-700,000 tons per year.

ASA Chairman Luther Markwart commented, ``A sugar ethanol program in Mexico would simultaneously deal with its sugar-surplus, air-pollution, and water- pollution problems, without job losses in sugar-producing areas. It could also hold the key to negotiations between the U.S. and Mexico concerning Mexico's desire to ship its sugar surplus to the United States, and Mexico's reluctance to import American corn sweeteners that might replace sugar in Mexican soft drinks.''

The American Sugar Alliance is a national coalition of growers, processors and refiners of sugarbeets, sugarcane and corn for sweetener.

For more information about U.S. sugar policy visit American Sugar Alliance at http://www.sugaralliance.org .