Home
News
UK imports almost all of its biofuel
85% of crop-based biofuel used on UK roads is imported, new figures from Defra reveal. This is despite a 17% increase in UK-sourced biofuels being used in the nation’s vehicles between 2012-13 and 2013-14 to 332m litres.
That means 85% of crop-based biofuel used on UK roads is imported. Biofuels used in the UK in 2013-14 totalled 810m litres – with 85% coming from countries both in and outside of Europe.
Largest import from Ukraine
The largest import came from the Ukraine, which exported 138m litres of corn-derived biofuels to the UK market. Other big exporters to the UK were France (71m litres from sugar beet compared to 57m litres home-grown) and the USA (60m litres from corn). Of wheat-derived biofuels, British and French farms produced the most for the UK market, at 71m litres each.
A total of 42,000ha of UK farmland was used for biofuel production in 2014, amounting to 0.7% of the country's arable area. A total of 787t of UK-grown crops were used for biofuel production for the road transport market in 2013-14 – an increase of 7% on the previous year.
Total agricultural area in the UK used for bioenergy crops (thousand ha)
|
|
|
|
2012
|
2013
|
Wheat of which: |
1,992 |
1,615 |
used for bioethanol |
20 |
26 |
OSR of which: |
756 |
715 |
used for biodiesel |
3 |
8 |
Sugar beet of which: |
120 |
117 |
used for bioethanol |
10 |
8 |
Source: Defra
|
|
|
[Source: FarmersWeekly]
Jez Fredenburgh, FarmersWeekly
To comment, register here
Or register to be able to comment.