Strong produc,on growth despite legal uncertain,es
A"er a rather moderate growth in 2007 (11%) European fuel ethanol produc=on increased considerably in 2008. The strong growth of almost 60% came to a =me where the EU legal framework for biofuels was under discussion and biofuels were under cri=que.

Total EU produc'on in 2008 was an es=mated 2.8 billion litres up from 1.8 billion litres the previous year. This represents a significant increase of 56%.

Most of this increase is due to the growth in French produc=on, which almost doubled to 1 billion litres in 2008 (up from 539 million litres in 2007).
This makes France the biggest EU ethanol fuel producer in 2008, followed by Germany that also expanded their out‐put to 568.5 million litres (+32.5%).

Third biggest producing country was Spain with 317 million litres. In 5 out of 18 producing member states the produc=on declined while the rest could either increase their produc=on (12) or could keep it steady.

In 2008 fuel ethanol produc=on capacity came on stream in Belgium. Finland resumed its produc=on in 2008 and in Austria fuel ethanol has been produced for the first complete year. The total number of member states
that produce bioethanol for the fuel sector increased to 17.

2008 was also a record year in terms of imports. Total imports increased by 400 million compared to 2007 and are es=mated to have reached in 2008 almost 1.9 billion litres. Between 1.4 and 1.5 billion litres came from Brazil
only. Somewhat over 50% of all imports (around 1.1 billion litres) were used in the fuel sector.

It is s=ll too early to publish reliable consump'on data for 2008. eBIO will publish an update of produc=on and imports data by July 2008. By then also consump=on and feedstock data will be published.

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