NEW YORK: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced last week a significant jump in ethanol exports to China this year.
The USDA led a trade mission to China previous year where representatives from nine state departments of agriculture and 28 USA companies, including renewable fuels businesses, traveled to northeast China to explore opportunities for trade in the region. USA agricultural exports to the country tripled over the last decade, now accounting for almost 20% of all foreign sales of US agricultural products. “U.S. ethanol exports to China have jumped from $8 million to more than $86 million since our May 2014 visit”.
It’s been called a volatile market at best, but China’s objective of relying more on renewable fuels has prompted some analysts and more than a few speculators to monitor Chinese demand for ethanol and biofuel products in recent months as China struggles to grow its dependency on and use of renewable fuels over the next five years. Previous U.S. exports of ethanol to China averaged less than $3 million annually from 2005 to 2014.
It follows the USDA’s partnership with 21 states to almost double the number of fuelling pumps nationwide earlier this year, expanding the ethanol refuelling infrastructure by almost 5,000 pumps.
“These are the kind of initiatives that strengthen our rural communities, and open new doors and help our farmers and ranchers capitalize on the tremendous export potential for American agricultural products”, said Scuse.
Buis says there have also been trade missions to other Far East nations including India that are looking at a cleaner greener fuel alternative. The Environmental Protection Agency issued a final rule November 30 created to increase production of ethanol to be blended with gasoline through 2016. The amount is less than was set in a 2007 renewable fuels law, but still provides yet another boost to the country’s ever-growing ethanol industry.
The past seven years have represented the strongest period for American agricultural exports in the history of the US, with agricultural product exports totaling $911.3 billion between Fiscal Years 2009 and 2015.
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