United States ethanol exporters have sold one billion gallons of the corn based fuel internationally through September. That pace is expected to continue with Japan deciding late this year to begin importing U.S. ethanol. Nebraska Ethanol Board Administrator Todd Sneller says the U.S. has gained a market advantage over Brazil in the Japanese market.
He says the Japanese are not only interested in more environmentally friendly fuels, but U.S. ethanol is much cheaper than the sugarcane based Brazilian product.
Sneller says a recent trade mission to Japan led by Governor Pete Ricketts helped open the Japanese market to U.S ethanol.
Japan is expected to use nearly 132 million gallons of ethanol in 2017, most of it from Brazil. According to a University of Nebraska Lincoln analysis, the ethanol industry has a $5 billion yearly impact on Nebraska’s economy.
