PR - The Economic Impact Of Ethanol Production On The South African Animal Feed Industry

Biofuels are becoming an increasingly important source of energy globally. The international biofuels industry experienced tremendous industry growth mainly driven by: increased energy demand and more specific petroleum prices, reliability of traditional crude oil exporters along with political motives, adverse pollution affects (Methyl tertiary butyl ether - MTBE) and more specific, emission gases from fossil fuels leading to environmental pressure for the use of cleaner burning fuels. By-products such as Distillers Grains from ethanol production can be a substitute for numerous protein rich raw materials such as oilcakes in animal feed rations which result in relative price changes and changes in consumption patterns of these raw materials. The possible impact on the animal feed industry is analyzed by using the BFAP and APR models. The results indicate that numerous relative price changes take place along with various changes in raw material consumption and that the total animal feed costs decrease with 2%.