BOGOTA – The government supports the construction of an ethanol plant in El Zulia, a city in northeast Colombia near the border with Venezuela, to help families affected by Venezuelan restrictions on sugar cane sales, President Alvaro Uribe said.

The president, who made the announcement on Saturday during a council meeting in the central city of San Juan de Rioseco, said the plant would “produce 15,000 liters daily of alcohol” and benefit sugar cane growers.

“Venezuela’s authorities have not allowed that (sugar) cane to continue arriving at the Urueña mill. This week the construction of the alcohol plant should be decided,” Uribe said.

Some 120 Colombian growers have been affected by Venezuela’s decision to prevent sugar cane from being sent to the Urueña mill.

Ethanol from the plant not sold in the border city of Cucuta will be sent to other cities, such as Bucaramanga and Barrancabermeja, Uribe said.

“There is one problem, it’s that the gasoline arrives there from Venezuela, so no one is going to blend alcohol into it ... if that alcohol has to be taken in tanker cars to Bucaramanga or Barrancabermeja, it’ll be taken there,” Uribe said.

Colombia is the second-largest ethanol producer in Latin America, trailing only Brazil.