Germany exported a record volume of biodiesel in the 2022 marketing year, according to a report by Germany’s Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants (UFOP).
The country shipped around 2.3M tonnes of biodiesel overseas in the period, while imports also reached a record level of 1.4M tonnes, the 23 February report said.
Germany’s primary trading partner remained the Netherlands and vice versa. In 2022, the Netherlands imported 1.16M tonnes of biodiesel from Germany, an increase of 21% compared to the previous year and 124,000 tonnes higher than the previous record set in 2020.
Exports to Belgium and Poland also increased, with the former importing around 635,900 tonnes of biodiesel from Germany in 2022, a 61% year-on-year increase.
At 287,200 tonnes, shipments to the USA doubled compared to 2021, the report said.
Total German biodiesel exports reached a new record level of 2.34M tonnes, with output totalling around 3.2M tonnes.
According to research by Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft, biodiesel imports to Germany in 2022 reached 1.36M tonnes, a 31% increase compared to the previous year. The largest volumes came from Austria, Belgium, Malaysia and the Netherlands. Imports from Austria reached 82,000 tonnes, more than one and a half times higher than the previous year. Shipments from Malaysia increased by around 84%, while imports to Germany from France dropped by 45%.
Germany’s strong trading position was due to the country’s greenhouse gas (GHG) quota policy, according to UFOP.
“This is a desired effect of the resources policy and… is confirmed by feedstock figures for the biofuel volumes that are counted towards GHG reduction targets,” UFOP said.
