According to energy crop farmers, the current grain oversupply in countries bordering Ukraine is undermining the argument of German ministers who wish to phase-out conventional biofuels by 2030, Euractiv reported recently.
The German agricultural and environmental ministries proposed phasing out biofuels produced from food and feed crops to secure more land for food production in April last year in response to the food supply risks posed by the war in Ukraine.
Dieter Bockey of the union for the promotion of oil and protein plants (UFOP) told Euractiv that the reason for this proposal has become obsolete as the prices for wheat and oilseeds have dropped and there is a glut of wheat in Ukraine’s neighbours. The Polish Farmers’ Association has even called for urgent measures such as EU-backed storage or processing into bioethanol, Bockey further said.
A spokesperson for the German agricultural ministry defended the phase-out plans, saying that in the medium to long term, land use competition is expected to continue to increase.
James Cogan of Ethanol Europe, meanwhile, argued that a link between food security and biofuels does not exist and that much policy time is being wasted on a non-issue.