Ethanol Industry Contributed $42 Billion To GDP In 2016

  • Tuesday, 21 February 2017 11:34

The ethanol industry produced a record 15.25 billion gallons and contributed $42 billion to the United States economy in 2016, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) announced today.

The ethanol industry's economic contribution supported 74,420 direct jobs and 264,756 indirect and induced jobs in 2016. This, in turn, resulted in $23 billion in household income and $9 billion in taxes. 

Ethanol producers also spent $25 billion on raw materials, inputs and other goods and services in 2016, the RFA's president, Bob Dinneen said in his state of the industry address at the 2017 National Ethanol Conference in San Diego today. 

Apart from 15.25 billion gallons of ethanol, the industry also produced 37.5 million metric tons of dried distillers grains (DDG) and 2.9 billion lbs of corn oil. 

Dinneen said ethanol exports in 2016 topped 1 billion gallons while DDG exports totaled 11.5 million metric tons last year. The top export destinations for ethanol in 2016 was Canada, Brazil, China and India. 

China, Mexico and Vietnam were among the biggest importers of DDGs from the United States in 2016. 

These exports, Dinneen said, contributed $3 billion to the economy, supported 14,940 jobs and reduced the country's trade deficit by $4 billion. 

Domestic ethanol consumption continued to displace foreign oil in 2016.

According to the RFA, ethanol production displaced 540 million barrels of crude oil in 2016.

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