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Ethanol industry could use export boost

The U.S. ethanol industry is looking to exports for a boost.

Ron Lamberty with the American Coalition for Ethanol says several factors have led to demand limitations, including the trade war with China.

“China has announced that they are going to go to 10 percent ethanol by 2020, and that would require quite a bit of ethanol, something like 4 billion gallons. So it’s a big market, and it could happen fairly quickly.”

He tells Brownfield Mexico also shows great potential once the USMCA agreement is ratified and the Mexican government modifies certain regulations.

“There are more and more people in (Mexico) using it, but it’s still a very small amount. Eventually it could be a 1 to 1.2 billion-gallon market.”

Domestically, Lamberty says rising gas prices should favor ethanol because it’s a cheaper alternative to petroleum-based fuel.