India has started processing record volumes of rice into ethanol, responding to surplus grain stocks, which will increase even further with the new harvest. This is reported by UNN with reference to Reuters.
Details
According to the agency, after several years of deficit, when exports were limited due to lack of rain, the situation has changed dramatically - thanks to abundant monsoons, India has received a significant rice harvest. Now the state is trying to reduce surplus stocks while supporting an ambitious program to mix ethanol with gasoline.
Our priority is to ensure we have enough food. But since we have much more rice than we actually need for that, we decided to use some of it to produce ethanol
The State Food Corporation of India (FCI) has allocated 5 million 200 thousand tons of rice for ethanol production - almost 9% of world rice supplies in the marketing year 2024/25, which ended in June. For comparison, less than 3,000 tons were used for these purposes last year.
FCI buys almost half of India's rice harvest and currently has record stocks - 59 million 500 thousand tons (including unground paddy rice) as of June 1. This volume significantly exceeds the government's target level of 13 million 500 thousand tons on July 1.
Reference
India, the world's third largest oil importer, aims to increase the share of ethanol in gasoline to 20% by 2025-26. In May, the figure already reached 19.8% - largely due to the availability of rice.