US grain exports increase in 2015/16, ethanol exports to China grow 1227%

US exports of feed grains in all forms in 2015/2016 increased by more than 300,000 tonnes from the previous marketing year, US Department of Agriculture data shows.

Totalling at 100.5 million tonnes, the export products include US corn, sorghum, barley, distillers’ dried grains with solubles (DDGS), corn gluten feed (CGF), corn gluten meal (CGM), ethanol as measured in corn equivalents, meat and poultry as measured in corn equivalents, and processed feed grain products.

Ethanol exports in 2015/16 totalled at 868.3 million tonnes, marking a 1.3% increase from the 859.5 million tonnes in 2014/15, and valued at $1.8 billion (€1.6bn).

Canada was the largest importer of US ethanol at 234.9 million tonnes, despite a 10% decrease from the 2014/15 levels of 262.9 million tonnes.

Ethanol exports to China grew by a massive 1227% from 14.3 million tonnes in 2014/15 to 190.5 million tonnes in 2015/16, making China the second largest importer of US ethanol.

The top two are followed by Brazil at 122.2 million tonnes, India at 66.9 million tonnes, and the Philippines at 63.1 million tonnes.

US DDGS imports also increased by 0.84%, growing to 11.7 million tonnes from 11.6 million tonnes in 2014/15.

China is the leading importer of DDGS at 3.3 million tonnes despite a 37.1% decrease from the last marketing year, followed by Mexico at 1.9 million tonnes and Vietnam at 1.0 million tonnes.

This article was written by Ilari Kauppila, deputy editor at Biofuels International