Indian drought hitting ethanol mandate hard with lack of supplies

In India, the drought has hit sugarcane production, and therefore ethanol production, very hard with some states like Maharashtra seeing production fall by more than half. As a result, achieving the E10 blending mandate seems even further away. The October tender held to supply ethanol to achieve the mandate saw only 780 million liters offered against 2.8 billion liters required. With conversion costs for ethanol up to 16%, mills are choosing the keep its molasses molasses rather than producing biofuel for the mandate.