China Is Focus For Trade

Ethanol producers looking to expand beyond our shores may be looking at China as an export destination. RFA CEO, Bob Dineen, said in a recent column in Ethanol Producer Magazine that the RFA, along with Growth Energy, joined the USDA in a recent trip to China to explore the potential of exporting ethanol and dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) to Asia's second largest economy.

In terms of ethanol exports, China is a relatively large and untapped market with new vehicle sales hitting 20 million units in 2013. According to Dineen, while there are corn ethanol plants in China, gasoline blended with ethanol is only available in six provinces and comprises less than 1 percent of the countries total fuel supply. Nonetheless, he pointed out, China has a ban on food-based ethanol. Still, policies change. China was once, after all, a closed economy.

Not only is there a potential to grow E10 in China, other blends such as E85 could be introduced there too. China is General Motors' (GM) largest market and it wouldn't take much for GM to introduce its line-up of flex-fuel models there.

In addition to ethanol, Dineen said China is currently the leading importer of American-produced DDGS. Read the entire column here