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Zimbabwe's government is accelerating plans to raise the ethanol content of petrol from the current E5 ratio to E20, a policy shift that would sharply increase demand for locally produced ethanol and hand a significant commercial boost to Billy Rautenbach's Green Fuel operation in Chisumbanje.
The push came into sharper focus this week after fuel prices spiked across Zimbabwe following supply disruptions linked to the Middle East conflict. Blended petrol, the E5 product currently sold at the pump, hit $2.17 per litre, while diesel rose to $2.05. The price increases, ranging between 26% and 39%, prompted President Emmerson Mnangagwa to establish a high-level inter-ministerial committee, chaired by Chief Secretary Dr Martin Rushwaya, to identify urgent relief measures.
One of the central options on the table is a faster transition to E20, which would see ethanol replace 20% of each litre of petrol rather than the current 5%. Vice President Constantino Chiwenga toured Green Fuel's Chisumbanje facility last week and publicly endorsed the direction. "This is Zimbabwe's direction. We want to sustain ourselves amidst current challenges," he said, calling on ethanol producers to scale up storage and production to support a consistent E20 blend.
Green Fuel said it is ready. Conrad Rautenbach, the company's general manager, said the operation is targeting production of 120 million litres of ethanol in 2026, backed by an upgraded 40-million-litre storage facility that he said can now sustain E20 throughout the year instead of cycling back to E5 during off-season crushing periods.
"This year, the plan is to produce 120 million litres of ethanol and now, with our upgraded storage facility, we should be able to have E20 throughout the year instead of dropping to E5," Conrad Rautenbach said.
The company also put a price figure on the proposed change: if E20 were in effect now, motorists would save approximately $0.18 per litre at the pump, a significant reduction at both household and national levels.
Green Fuel, in which Billy Rautenbach holds a controlling interest, is the country's dominant ethanol producer. The company grows sugarcane in the Chisumbanje area of the Lowveld and processes it into fuel ethanol at its on-site distillery. Under Zimbabwe's fuel blending mandate, all petrol sold domestically must contain ethanol, making Green Fuel the compulsory supplier to the entire national fuel supply chain. A move to E20 would mechanically increase the volume of ethanol purchased from the company in every litre of blended fuel sold in the country.
Critics of the current arrangement have raised concerns about the pricing of Green Fuel's ethanol, noting that the domestic product sells at around $1.10 per litre while global benchmarks sit between $0.50 and $0.70 per litre. Some analysts have argued that the structure of Zimbabwe's fuel market, in which unblended sales are prohibited and a single company supplies the mandatory additive, removes competitive pressure on pricing. That debate has intensified alongside the latest fuel increases, with commentators pointing out that Zimbabwe's pump prices are the highest in southern Africa, well above levels in South Africa, Zambia and Botswana.
The government's response has been to frame the E20 push as a national resilience strategy. Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said he was actively exploring ways to cushion consumers from the price increases. Chiwenga directed the Ministry of Energy and Power Development to bring ethanol producers together and coordinate industry-wide expansion. The Vice President also said sugarcane cultivation should expand beyond traditional growing areas to secure raw material supply.
Zimbabwe currently holds about three months' worth of fuel reserves, which the government said provides a buffer against short-term supply disruptions as the Middle East crisis continues to pressure global oil markets.
