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IRFA monitoring trade provisions in farm bill

Biofuel groups continue to monitor the latest farm bill developments.

Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, says the legislation can have an impact on ethanol exports.

“The ag groups are going to take care of the main provisions, so we spend a lot of our time looking at the trade provisions. The funding for programs called MAP and FMD to help us export.”

He tells Brownfield it will be a record-breaking year for exports despite the tough rural economic environment. “I think it’s going to be close to 1.8 billion gallons this last marketing year. That’s 18 one-hundred-million-gallon ethanol plants that are operating because of exports. Let’s not take our eye off that ball.”

The latest data from the Renewable Fuels Association shows nearly one-third of the country’s ethanol exports go to Canada.