In October 2014, at a press conference at the Government, it was announced that the US company DuPont and Irish company Ethanol Europe Renewals will invest 250 million euros, starting from 2016, in a factory for the production of cellulosic ethanol in the Pelagonia region.
Apart from initial information from 2014, regarding a signed Memorandum and the announcement of 1,000 new jobs, the project was only mentioned once more during the visit of the Prime Minister at the time, Gruevski, to Prilep in April 2015 when he US company is still working on the preparations for the investment that "will hire about 2,000 people after it is realised."
The Minister for Foreign Investments, Bill Pavleski, in September 2016 told BIRN that the preparatory work for the project is in the final stage and that they are still waiting for approval by the European Commission to introduce a regulation that would enable investments in cellulosic ethanol in Europe.
Pelagonia ethanol, which according to the articles of one of the leading websites for biofuels, the Bioplastik magazine, is run by DuPont, Ethanol Europe, the Macedonian Government and the municipality of Prilep, is currently is in the process of deregistration from the Central Register of Republic of Macedonia.
Moreover, according to the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2014, the Government of the Republic of Macedonia was to facilitate the project’s implementation by establishing a sustainable supply chain of energy crops, increasing the local production of cereals and oilseed crops and provide incentives for initiatives for renewable biomass energy.
In a video presentation of the project, the Macedonia and Pelagonia regions are portrayed as the cradle of European civilisation, which are currently marked by abandoned villages and unplowed fields; the dominant crop in this region is tobacco, produced by half of the families in a traditional way, without the use of modern technology.
“Pelagonia ethanol‘s project that will show how 20,000 hectares of abandoned and unused land can be revitalised through Europe’s economy;” it is said in the presentation.
According to reports, the construction of the factory was due to start in 2016 in Mariovo, while the production was to start in 2018 with 1,000 workers. Both domestic and Irish media wrote about this investment.
Today, at the site of the investment, only a meadow can be seen; there are no signs nor any indication that this site was supposed feature a factory which, as announced, was to increase Macedonia’s GDP for one per cent and reduce unemployment for approximately two per cent.
Pelagonia ethanol is in the process of deregistration and according to official data from 2015, it had no non-current assets and only one employee. In 2016, the company had no employees.