German biodiesel imports up 75%, exports up 27% in 1st half of 2022

Germany’s foreign trade in biodiesel is poised to increase this year. In the first half of 2022, exports climbed 27 percent and imports as much as 75 percent.

According to figures published by the German Federal Statistical Office, Germany exported around 1.3 million metric tons (approximately 390 million gallons) of biodiesel in the first half of this year. By contrast, imports amounted to 755,539 tons (approximately 227 million gallons).

The Netherlands, the principal EU marketplace for biodiesel, continued to be the primary trading partner, accounting for 40 percent and 48 percent of total exports and imports, respectively. Imports more than doubled after having declined considerably in the previous year.

According to investigations conducted by Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (mbH), larger shipments also came from Belgium, Malaysia and Poland.

Imports from Belgium also more than doubled, and imports coming directly from Malaysia decreased around 17 percent.

The main recipient countries of German biodiesel were EU countries (76 percent), headed by the Netherlands, Belgium and Poland.

The most important non-EU country was the U.S. The U.S. took fourth place in the first half of 2022, partly because imports increased 28 percent year-on-year to just below 91,000 tons (27.3 million gallons)*.

In view of the trade surplus, the Union zur Förderung von Oel- und Proteinpflanzen (UFOP) e. V. has pointed out that along with the volumes of biodiesel, potential for climate-change mitigation in the transport sector is also exported.

“The fruit couldn’t be hanging any lower to use it to close the gap recently identified by the [German] federal government’s climate council,” UFOP stated. “The fact that even the federal ministry for the environment is unable to propose immediately effective measures underlines that there is no alternative to biofuels, especially those that are physically available. The speed limit is far from sufficient. The electrification of transport as a consequence of e-mobility and thermal-pump funding would only shift greenhouse-gas emissions to the power sector, especially because more coal-fired power plants would have to be recommissioned to secure supply. The UFOP has underlined that in the end, climate protection would be the loser.”

*U.S. Energy Information Administration data shows biodiesel imports from Germany stood at nearly 33 million gallons for the first half of this year.