Peru’s ethanol consumption, production expected to increase

According to a USDA Foreign Agricultural Service report, filed with the Global Agricultural Information Network, Peru is expected to produce and consume more ethanol in 2019 than it did in 2018. “Peruvian ethanol production in 2019 is forecast at 180 million liters, an increase of 29 percent from the previous year,” the report says. “Ethanol consumption for 2019 is forecast at 200 million liters, increasing three percent from 2018.”

The increase in production, the report says, is due to one of the country’s two production facilities restarting operations after recently ceasing production in 2014. The increase in production is expected to cut into the country’s imports, says the FAS, as the country is expected to import 140 million liters (36.98 million) of ethanol, a decrease of 19 percent from 2018 imports.

Peru’s feedstock for ethanol production is sugar cane. As such, the ethanol industry in Peru competes with the country’s sugar industry. “A number of sugar cane growers are evaluating the economic feasibility of diverting part of their crop to ethanol production,” the report says, but adds that there aren’t any immediate plans to begin this on a commercial scale.

Peru has met it’s 7.8 percent ethanol mandate since 2013, however the report says that unless that mandate is increased, “ethanol consumption will only increase as gasoline consumption increases.”

The full report is available here.