Ethanol hits new export record of 1.4B gallons

In Washington, D.C., the U.S. Grains Council has been able to help promote corn ethanol sales globally for a new export record in marketing year 2016/2017 of nearly 1.4 billion gallons, by partnering with the Renewable Fuels Association, Growth Energy and USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) – and with support from the Market Access Program (MAP) program funds and state check-off contributions.

Calendar year 2017 saw Council ethanol promotion programs in China, Japan, South Korea, Colombia, Peru, Canada, Mexico, India, the Philippines and Taiwan. Additionally, the Council provided public comments and scientific data on numerous foreign countries’ biofuel regulatory framework processes.

As a result of these efforts and the competitiveness of US corn-based ethanol in the marketplace, nearly 1.4 billion gallons of the biofuel (valued at $2.37 billion) were exported worldwide. Top customers included Brazil, Canada, India, the Philippines and China. This export figure beats the previous record of nearly 1.1 billion gallons exported in marketing year 2011/2012, before USGC developed an ethanol program. Additionally, the U.S. market share of total global ethanol exports jumped from 50 percent in 2016 to nearly 65 percent in 2017.