Ethanol seen chomping into corn crops

Corn stockpiles are expected to run low into the next crop year as ethanol demand rises.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The surging fuel ethanol industry will gobble up 27 percent of this year’s U.S. corn crop, challenging U.S. farmers’ ability to satisfy food, feed and fuel demand, the U.S. government said Friday.

Even with its projection of a record 12.46 billion-bushel corn crop this year, the Agriculture Department said U.S. stockpiles will run low going into the next crop year when voracious ethanol demand will rise again.


“We keep our head just above water [this year]. We’ve got to swim that much harder in 2008,” said analyst Mark McMinimy of Stanford Washington Research.

Some 3.4 billion bushels of corn – enough to make 9.3 billion gallons – will be used by ethanol distillers in the marketing year opening on September 1, said the USDA, compared with 2.15 billion bushels or 20 percent of the 2006 crop.

Reuters