USDA's bioenergy Market News Reports provide new transparency

By Agri-Pulse Staff

© Copyright Agri-Pulse Communications, Inc.

Washington, June 23 – Producers, consumers and distributors of bioenergy products now can access crucial data through the Bioenergy Market News Reports published by the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service.

The primary function of these Market News Reports is to compile and disseminate information that will aid producers, consumers and distributors in the sale and purchase of their products nationally and internationally. Several Market News Reports offer information on bioenergy products.

The Ethanol reports include data for six regions (Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and the Eastern Corn Belt). Each report publishes daily corn bids, daily distiller grain prices and a weekly ethanol price.

The Weekly Ethanol Summary combines all ethanol reports into a summary report. Futures prices for CME corn and ethanol, as well as NYMEX natural gas and reformulated gasoline can be found on this report. Graphs depicting prices for Iowa ethanol price, Iowa distiller grain price and the price ratio in Iowa between distiller grain and corn are shown.

The National Weekly Ag Energy Roundup includes prices for commodities that can be used to make energy, such as soybean oil, corn oil, tallow and greases. The prices of ethanol and biodiesel are also reported. Additionally, CME and NYMEX futures prices are reported for ethanol, soybean oil, crude oil, reformulated gasoline and natural gas. Graphs are included to show price relationships for several commodities.

There are three reports that report Ethanol Corn and Products Processing Values (Iowa, Nebraska and Illinois). These reports compare the price that ethanol plants pay for corn in their state to the value the ethanol plant receives from the outputs of ethanol and distiller grains.

For more information about Bioenergy Market News Reports, contact Jim Bernau at (515) 284-4460 or Jim.Bernau@ams.usda.gov. To access these reports, visit: www.marketnews.usda.gov

The monthly Biofuel Transportation Database contains public rail tariff rates and fuel surcharges for the major ethanol and DDGS origins and destinations in the United States. Class I railroads periodically update ethanol and DDGS tariff rates and fuel surcharges on their individual websites for public use. The database provides an easy to use, central location for producers and shippers to find current tariff rates plus fuel surcharges per car. The CME links customers to the database as a way to help calculate shipping charges to destination points for its Dried Distiller's Grain Futures contracts. For more information on this database, visit: www.ams.usda.gov/ATAgriculturalTransportationHome

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