Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the amount of British-grown wheat used in bio-fuel production.
Answered by George Eustice
There is no specific published data on the amount of wheat grown in the UK that is used for bioethanol. However it is possible to provide an estimate. Defra's statistics on ‘The Area of Crops Grown For Bioenergy in England and the UK: 2008 – 2012' published in December 2013 include data reported under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) on the volume of bioethanol supplied to the UK road transport market with information on the feedstock and the country of origin of the feedstock. By applying appropriate conversion factors, it is possible to derive an estimate of the equivalent tonnage and crop area of wheat grown and used to produce bioethanol. These figures are outlined in the table below.
UK wheat areas used to produce bioethanol supplied to the UK road transport market 2008/9 - 2012/13 Wheat (RTFO Year: 15 April n-1 to 14 April n) |
Volume of bioethanol (million litres)(b) |
Tonnage of crop implied ('000 tonnes)(c) |
wheat yield (t/ha)(d)(e) |
Area implied (thousand ha) and % of UK total wheat area(e) |
Year 1: 15 April 2008 - 14 April 2009 | 0.0 | 0 | 8.3 | 0 |
Year 2: 15 April 2009 - 14 April 2010 | 0.9 | 3 | 7.9 | 0.3 (0%) |
Year 3: 15 April 2010 - 14 April 2011(a) | 211.9 | 581 | 7.7 | 75.4 (4%) |
Year 4: 15 April 2011 - 14 April 2012 | 17.9 | 49 | 7.7 | 6.3 (0%) |
Year 5: 15 April 2012 - 14 April 2013 (provisional)(f) | 48.2 | 132 | 6.7 | 19.6 (1%) |
(a) This includes an estimated 92 million tonnes of bioethanol produced from wheat used for markets other than for UK Road Transport.
(b) All wheat volumes above were grown on previously cropped land.
(c) Conversion: 365 litres bioethanol = 1 tonne wheat grain (at 15% moisture). Source: Department for Transport commissioned research.
(d) Source: Defra annual Cereal and Oilseed Rape Production Survey (In 2012 the Cereal Production Survey and Oilseed Rape Production Survey were brought together to reduce costs Cereal Production Survey) UK yield at year n-1. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/structure-of-the-agricultural-industry
(e) Source: Defra June Survey of Agriculture. UK area at year n-1. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/structure-of-the-agricultural-industry
(e) Figures for 2012-13 (Year 5) are as of 15 September 2013 and are not final.
The RTFO data exclude UK biofuel production from UK grown wheat which may be subsequently exported, although the 2010/11 figure also includes an estimate of bioethanol produced from wheat and used for other markets or exported. Similarly, data is not available on wheat grown in the UK which is exported for possible biofuel production outside the UK.