EU biofuels to “stagnate’, says USDA, citing import tariffs’ impact on competitiveness

In Germany, Agrimoney is reporting on the USDA report, isssued out of The Hague, predicting a stagnation in biofuels unless there is some postive moment on improt tariffs — the report noting, critically, that the EU has been walling itself off from interamtional markers with a series of -anti-dumping measures. Critics from exporting nations have been sniping that the EU tends to define “dumping” as any agricultural agricultural product that can be made elsewhere for less.

In shielding EU producers from international competitiors, goes the theory, EU producers essentially produce only for the EU markets based on their higher cost-structures. With the current cap on food-crop based biofuels anow at 5%, that puts a firm lid on growth for EU producers. Hence the USDA cooment, which also noted flat demand for road transportation fuels as a whole.

Agrimoney reported that “2016 fuel ethanol use was also seen at 5.25bn litres, down from 5.32bn litres in 2014, and a high of 5.70bn litres in 2011…and Biodiesel use is seen falling in 2015, to 13.06bn litres, from 13.10bn litres in 2014, before recovering to 13.09bn litres in 2015.”