TOKYO: The U.S. Grains Council has confirmed that Japan has given approval to policy changes needed to import the oxygenate ETBE, which is made from U.S. corn-based ethanol. Farmer Duane Aistrope of Randolph, Iowa, president of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, said, “The best way to enhance farmer profitability is to create new demand for corn through value-added products such as ethanol.
With more than $1.2 billion in U.S. ethanol exported last year, ethanol exports have become extremely important to Iowa farmers’ profitability.” Japan will allow U.S. ethanol to make up as much as 95.5 million gallons of the 217 million gallons of ethanol Japan plans to use to make ETBE.
