Archer Daniels Midland plans to create a global presence in renewable fuels by boosting investment in sugar and palm oil. But it admitted it faces a tough task to persuade refiners to blend its ethanol in their gasoline.

The US agribusiness group is already the country's largest producer of corn-based ethanol and has a leading position in the European market for oil seed-derived biodiesel. Pat Woertz, the former Chevron executive brought in to head ADM last May, noted the emergence of renewable fuel policies in Asia and elsewhere, and said the group would look to "expand the geographic scope of our core model" and diversify its product into alternatives such as palm oil and "perhaps sugar".