Demand for maize in ethanol manufacturing industry is expected to reach 125 lakh tonnes next year
16-Oct-2024 11:51 AM
Mumbai. The central government has set a target of blending 20 per cent ethanol in petrol for the 2025-26 season. To achieve this ambitious target, there will be a need to increase the production of ethanol in the domestic sector.
Since increasing the use of sugarcane for ethanol production can affect sugar production and the government would not want this to happen, grain-based distilleries will have more responsibility to increase the production of ethanol. In view of this, the use of maize, especially in ethanol production, can increase rapidly.
According to industry analysts, about 60 lakh tonnes of maize is likely to be used in the production of ethanol during the current marketing season of 2024-25, while in the 2025-26 season it can more than double to 125 lakh tonnes.
For this, either the domestic production of maize will have to be increased by at least 60 lakh tons or other consumer industries will have to cut down on their requirements. The third option is to allow duty-free import of maize from abroad.
Maize has traditionally been used for direct human food purposes, animal feed, poultry feed and in the starch manufacturing industry, while the ethanol manufacturing industry has also joined it now.
As a result, there will be competition among all these industries to get maximum stock of maize and as the competition increases, prices may increase substantially.
As a result, maize will go out of the hands of not only the poor people but also the exporters. It is also important to keep in mind that if consumer industries have to buy raw material at a higher price, then the price of their finished product will naturally increase.
The US Department of Agriculture has projected maize production in India to remain stable at around 37.5 million tonnes during the entire marketing seasons of 2023-24 and 2024-25 and thus India will remain the sixth largest producer of this important coarse grain in the world.