In the form of fuel, a Cordoba company exports corn for the first time to Europe

With limited domestic demand, due to the effects of the quarantine, some sectors of the Cordovan industry seek to offset part of this retraction with sales abroad

That is the strategy that the companies that make corn ethanol, the renewable fuel that in the domestic market mixes 12 percent with naphtha, and which has the main pole of production at the national level, have decided to implement.

With an operation closed in June and scheduled for shipment in the next few days, the company ACA Bio, located in Villa María, will carry out its first export of the by-product of corn grinding to the European Union (EU).

Although the company excused itself from reporting the quantity and value of the export, they stated that it represents more than 15 days of production at the plant.

The establishment has an annual processing capacity of 167 million liters, for which it allocates around 380 thousand tons per year of corn.

Exceeded requirement

Although the company maintains that the profit margin of the operation is minimal, the sale helps to lower the stock stored and keep the plant running.

In recent months, due to the drop in demand from refineries, the industry has been forced to discontinue production for several days.

“It is a transcendent sale, beyond volume, because it means having entered the European Union and exceeded environmental and traceability protocols for the corn with which that bioethanol was produced,” said Eduardo Accastello, Minister of Industry of the Province.

In April, ACA Bio y Promaíz, another plant located in the Cordoba town of Alejandro Roca, had concluded a sale of the product to Brazil. The fuel buyer had been the Brazilian subsidiary of Shell.

Last month Bio 4, located in Río Cuarto, sold denatured alcohol to Spain from the retrofitting of one of its ethanol production lines.

Market

The EU is one of the main world markets for ethanol. In negotiations with Mercosur, the bloc had agreed to import 450,000 tons of tax-free ethanol for chemical uses: solvents, disinfectants, bioplastics or cosmetics. That is, for purposes other than its use in transport.

The agreement also allows the entry of 200 thousand tons from Mercosur for all uses, including fuel, but with a tariff.

Ethanol today has a 15 percent withholding on exports.