Tung Lam Co, Vietnam’s only producer of ethanol, has turned to corn as a new feedstock following a rise in the price of cassava.

The company trialed corn ethanol production earlier this year and this June, during a mission to the US, it bought 40,000 tonnes of US corn and a hammer mill allowing it to grind up to 150,000 tonnes annually, the US Grains Council announced.

Until recently, Tung Lam relied on cassava as its primary feedstock, but the growing demand for it from China and other countries in Southeast Asia has put significant pressure on supply.

At the start of 2018 Vietnam introduced the E5 ethanol blend and it aims to upgrade that to E10 by 2020.

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