Agave

South Australia’s first commercial agave crop 

In winter 2024, Vircura, in partnership with The Madgett’s Block, planted 1,2000 tequilana agave plants in Willunga, South Australia. 

Once harvested, the agave can be used as a feedstock in bioethanol or hydrogen production, or alternatively distilled to produce agave spirit, for which there is a growing local and international market. There is further potential for agave to be used to produce animal feed, hand sanitiser, inulin products as well as carbon sequestration offsets. 

Willunga is part of the renowned McLaren Vale wine region, and the agave crop marks a significant milestone as local growers begin to diversify from traditional crops with alternative and drought-resistant crops. 

We are excited to see this project come to life and look forward to sharing its progress in the years ahead. 

Agave in Australia

Research into the agave industry in Australia provides a pathway to more efficient biofuel and biogas production. Agave can be grown on under-utilised, low-rainfall land, producing high yielding crops with minimal inputs. This provides a key advantage over alternative sources of biomass.

By developing the agave industry in Australia, Vircura will open and create market opportunities for growers, particularly for those with arid and semi-arid land, and companies seeking carbon neutral prospects.

Vircura is currently collaborating with the University of Adelaide for further R&D of agave in Australia.

Learn more about agave here.

Agave for bioenergy/biofuels

In 2020 the Journal for Cleaner Production published a “promising feedstock for biofuels in the water-energy-food-environment” which reported the first comprehensive life cycle assessment and economic analysis on ethanol produced from agave in the Ayr field plantation. It claims, “the results show that agave is promising for biofuel production in the water-energy-food-environment context” and “Global Warming impact of agave is also 62% and 30% lower than that of corn and sugarcane respectively”.

Bioenergy has a vital role to play as part of Australia’s clean energy future and Vircura is exploring and commercialising agave for sustainable energy promoting the plant as a future biomass crop, suited to the Australian climate and availability of marginal and semi-arid land. Vircura has established agave trial plantations to demonstrate versatility of the plant and is building a state-of-the-art tissue culture facility to boost plant stocks. This will create market opportunities for growers and support companies seeking renewable, carbon neutral biomass feedstocks.

As Vircura grows and opportunities expand, we are looking for more end users and growers to partner with. If you are a business or grower interested in working with us in the agave space, please fill out the below form, and a member of our team will be in touch.