Colombia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy has increased the country’s ethanol blend mandate to 10% nationwide from the start of March 2018.

Noting the announcement, trade group US Grains Council said that Colombia has an expanding ethanol industry that produces ethanol from sugarcane. The new ethanol mandate is supported by increased production and high inventories of ethanol resulting from a drop in sugar prices in early 2018, it commented.

The trade group further noted that US ethanol is imported into Colombia duty free, but the country’s low-carbon fuel standard does not favour corn-based ethanol, such as is made in the US. Still, in the 2016/2017 marketing year Colombia bought more than 13 million (49 million litres) gallons of US ethanol.

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