20101112 1107 Biofuels Related News.

Biofuels To Boost Northern England Wheat Prices (Source: CME)
Wheat prices in north-east England are set to rise to parity with the south due to demand from the country's burgeoning biofuels sector, an industry consultant said. Wheat exports from the region will all but cease as a swathe of new refineries using the grain to produce biofuels comes online, Richard Whitlock, previously a senior executive with Frontier Agriculture, told the Home Grown Cereal Authority's biofuels conference near York, England. Instead, demand for more than 2 million metric tons of wheat from refiners such as Ensus in Teesside and Hull-based Vitergo--due to come online in mid-2011--will ramp up the expansion of the region's 5.3 million ton output, he said. "Price opportunities...will give [farmers] every opportunity to maximize the investment in big output crops," he said.
The prediction comes as concern has mounted in some corners that the expansion of the U.K.'s biofuels sector may sap the country's exports. But for farmers facing dwindling European Union subsidies and increasing volatility in grain prices, security of demand for their crops will come as a welcome addition to the market. "This is a fantastic opportunity for British agriculture," said Whitlock. He also dismissed fears refiners will demand high-specification wheat types, insisting that for now at least, plants will be satisfied with standard feed wheat and would prefer the benefits of a fast turnaround of supplies--the average delivery taking only eight minutes--to the lengthy process of measuring quality. Still, he noted the EU's biofuels sector is still in its infancy and government incentives remain a key driver in a highly politicized market.
"It is about good science--that will be the solution for our future," he said.

EU biofuels growth on hold as green benefits queried
LONDON, Nov 10 (Reuters) - The European Union's biofuels industry is unlikely to expand until the debate about their impact on climate change is resolved and clear policies emerge, the head of major UK biofuels firm said on Wednesday.
"The (biofuels) industry is being held back by a lack of robust discrimination between what is good and what is bad," Alwyn Hughes, chief executive of Ensus said, referring to the differing environmental footprints of biofuels.