National Chicken Council lobbies EPA to lower 2017 ethanol volume

In the US, the National Chicken Council (NCC) is asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reduce the production volumes proposed for ethanol in 2017 under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and reassess the US biofuels policy as a whole.

In a statement submitted to the EPA, the council says it finds the proposed 2017 volumes to be “overly aggressive” and “based on faulty assumptions” regarding the fuel market.

NCC president Mike Brown argues that the use of corn for ethanol has created an uneven playing field for chicken producers and that the ethanol mandate above blend wall “reignites the food versus fuel inequity”.

According to the NCC comment, the impact of the food versus fuel pressure on feedstock has been severe, and since the RFS was enacted in 2005, chicken producers alone have faced $53 billion (€47.9bn) in higher actual feed costs due to the programme.

During the RFS era, at least a dozen chicken companies have ceased operations, filing for bankruptcy or having been acquired by another company.

“Given the unpredictable weather right now throughout the Corn Belt and the volatility in the corn market this past week, it is obvious that chicken producers are again only one supply shock, flood, or drought away from high volatile corn prices as in 2009 and 2012,” Brown said.

“Where chicken producers have to adjust production and limit flocks due to corn prices, the RFS protects ethanol producers from having to make the same type of adjustments.”

The comment also claims that the rapid rise in ethanol exports in 2014 and 2015 applies further pressure on the corn and feed market beyond Congressional intent under the RFS and is an urgent emerging resource constraint.

For the four years of 2013 through 2016, ethanol exports will likely consume nearly 1.2 billion bushels of corn in addition to the corn consumed by domestic ethanol, according to NCC calculations.