Jeddah, Saudi Arabia - Brazil said on Sunday that the world needed more biofuel production to meet burgeoning global energy demand that sparked recent record high oil prices.
"The fair price (for oil) has to be determined by the cost of production of oil - but the prices are extremely high," Brazilian Energy Minister Edson Lobao told reporters at the Jeddah Energy Meeting.
"The first solution would be to raise (oil) production. The second solution would be to do what Brazil is already doing - which is to produce biofuels," he said.
He also denied that the South American nation's aggressive push into biofuel production was at the expense of higher food prices and lower output.
"Brazil will never promote biofuel output if it is to harm food production," Lobao said. "What causes food prices to rise is the high price of oil.
"Brazil does not use land to produce biofuels that can be used for the production of food. The two lands are separate."
Soaring food prices were a major issue for crude oil producers, he argued.
"This does not depend on Brazil," Lobao said. "It depends on oil-producing countries as the price of fertilizers to produce food is very high. It is the role of oil-producing countries to bring costs down."