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Tariffs already impacting ethanol exports

An ag economist with the University of Missouri says tariff talk has already affected ethanol exports.

Ben Brown says Canada is the largest buyer of U.S.-produced ethanol.

“We did see this last week the ethanol stocks number in the U.S. just spiked to some of their highest levels since we stopped driving and consuming during the pandemic.”  He says, “It wasn’t consumption that was the problem this time, not using product. It was Canada not buying ethanol.”

He tells Brownfield it’ll impact corn demand.

“Now we’ve got growing stocks on the ethanol side that’s going to further suppress those margins.”  He says, “We’ve already seen really weak to low margins for ethanol plants.  You know, my expectation is ethanol consumption, or ethanol grind, really starts to kind of taper off here for a period of time this spring.”

Brown gave his comments during Brownfield’s Weekly Commodity Market Update.

AUDIO: Brownfield’s Weekly Commodity Update