Colombia: Biofuels Annual
Colombia’s biofuel production decreased in 2016 as a result of difficult weather conditions that affected its main feedstocks (sugarcane and palm oil). Moreover, unclear biofuels policies on increasing blend mandates have resulted in little incentive to increase production despite new biofuels facilities coming online. In late 2016, the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) lifted all restrictions on fuel ethanol imports by May, 2017, as long as the biofuel complies with quality and carbon footprint standards that will allow Colombia to achieve its climate change commitments. Those standards are not yet set, however depending on how they are written; they could become a trade barrier for U.S. corn-based ethanol. In the first part of 2017, Colombia’s imports of U.S. ethanol (nearly all for fuel use) reached a record 30.8 million liters, well above the previous full-year record of 18.6 million liters in 2016.
