Brazil corn ethanol boom covers demand as country hikes biofuel mandate

Growth of Brazil’s corn ethanol sector has become key to meeting the country’s growing demand for the renewable fuel under a new government mandate to use more ethanol in gasoline, even as sugarcane-based ethanol output has stagnated. Brazil is the world’s largest producer of ethanol from sugarcane, but output has flattened since the turn of the decade, while corn ethanol production has more than tripled, according to data from sugar and ethanol industry group UNICA. In the 2024/25 cycle, corn ethanol output in Brazil’s center-south region rose nearly 31% from the year before to 8.19 billion liters, according to an UNICA report. On Wednesday, Brazil’s government approved a measure hiking the mandatory blend of ethanol in gasoline to 30%, from 27% previously, which will require well over 1 billion more liters of ethanol per year. “Thanks to corn ethanol, we are increasing the blend to 30%, right? If it weren’t for this increase in production, we wouldn’t be able to implement this ...