Business · Energy & Commodities · 6 hrs ago
Maize makes up nearly 60% of ethanol offered to Indian oil companies
For India's 2026–27 ethanol supply year, producers offered oil companies 19.32 billion litres, against a tender requirement of 11 billion litres.
Nearly 60% of the offers use maize, though offers do not guarantee that oil companies will buy those amounts.
India is promoting ethanol blending in petrol, and oil companies may need another 1 billion litres beyond their tender to meet the E20 mandate.
The offers include 11.45 billion litres of maize-based ethanol, which would take about 30 million tonnes of maize if all were produced.
The final allocation could require more than 13 million tonnes of maize if the tender uses the estimated mix of other feedstocks.
That could increase competition for maize and raise costs for users such as poultry, food processing and starch industries, especially as maize production is estimated to be 15% below the previous year.
Oil companies' final feedstock allocations will determine how much maize goes to ethanol.
Producers offered 19.32 billion litres of ethanol for India’s 2026–27 supply year, against oil marketing companies’ tender requirement of 11 billion litres.
Maize-based ethanol made up 11.45 billion litres, nearly 60% of the total offers.
The offers are close to India’s confirmed distillation capacity of 19.5 billion litres.
Producing all the maize-based ethanol offered would require about 30 million tonnes of maize, but the final amount used will depend on OMC allocations.
Industry estimates put maize production about 15% below the previous year’s level, raising concerns about competition with other users, including poultry producers.
- Who
- Ethanol producers made the offers to India’s oil marketing companies (OMCs).
- What
- Producers offered 19.32 billion litres of ethanol, nearly 60% of it maize-based.
- When
- The offers are for the 2026–27 Ethanol Supply Year.
- Where
- India.
- Why
- Suppliers are choosing ethanol buyers because they offer higher prices, according to an industry expert.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Producers offered 19.32 billion litres of ethanol against the OMCs’ tender requirement of 11 billion litres.
OMCs’ feedstock-wise allocation will determine how much maize is actually diverted to ethanol production.
- Total ethanol offers
- 19.32 billion litres
- OMC tender requirement
- 11 billion litres
- Maize-based offers
- 11.45 billion litres
- Confirmed distillation capacity
- 19.5 billion litres
- Estimated maize production
- About 15% below the previous year’s 55 million tonnes
What people are saying
Even this level of diversion, which is unlikely as 970 million litres cannot come from molasses, will put pressure on traditional users of the crop, particularly the poultry industry, which relies on maize as a major ingredient in animal feed.
The industry supplies a significant share of India’s dietary protein through eggs and poultry meat and supports the livelihoods of poultry farmers,