Biofuel boom leading to price hikes of food products

Rising demand for plant-derived bioethanol has led to a shortage of cooking oil, pushing up prices of food products such as mayonnaise, and likely beef and even beer.

Corn and sugarcane are increasingly being grown as ingredients for the eco-friendly fuel, leaving makers of food products that use those or other crops with limited supplies.


Q.P. Corp., Japan’s largest maker of mayonnaise, has been forced to raise prices by about 10 percent for its Kewpie brand products. It was the company’s first price increase in 17 years.

The company was hit by soaring prices of soybean-derived cooking oil, which makes up 70 percent the ingredients for mayonnaise.

Asahi Shimbun