The economic impact of maize-based ethanol production on the South African animal feed industry

[摘要] English: This study focuses mainly on the economic impact of maize-based ethanol production on the South African animal feed industry. Over the past few years the world has witnessed substantial developments in the global production and the production capacity of ethanol. Bio-fuels are becoming an increasingly important source of energy globally. This tremendous industry growth is mainly driven by: increased energy and more specifically petroleum prices, the reliability of traditional crude oil exporters along with political motives, adverse pollution effects (methyl tertiary butyl ether �?MTBE) and more specifically emission gases from fossil fuels leading to environmental pressure for the use of cleaner burning fuels. Together with this growth, various researchers locally and globally have focused on ethanol production, but little work has been done on the economic impact that ethanol production will have on the animal feed industry. These impacts include substitution of the raw materials of animal feed, the price sensitivity of raw material prices (equilibrium prices), changes in feed costs and the consumption of distiller's dried grains with solubles (DDGS) by different animal species. In order to simulate the results, the two main scenarios were analysed using three different models, namely the BFAP model, the APR model and the Nieuwoudt/McGuigan model. By applying the BFAP model to these scenarios, the equilibrium prices of animal-feed raw materials were simulated for the year 2015. The other two models were then applied to these prices in order to evaluate the impact of ethanol production on the animal feed industry. Two main scenarios is constructed with 8 combinations, the main variables in the scenarios is the oil price and the blending ratios. The results revealed that there is no significant effect on the animal feed industry. Various raw materials are affected, but only by small percentages. The only raw material that shows any significant change is lucerne with a 20% decrease in consumption. A few species were dominant consumers of DDGS, namely broilers, pigs and dairy cattle. In terms of the animal feed costs, there was only a 2% decrease with the introduction of ethanol production. The introduction of ethanol production resulted in various price reactions, including an increase in the price of yellow maize and a decrease in the prices of various oilcake raw materials. Under a scenario of high blending ratios and oil prices the yellow maize price increases with R169/ton and the soya oilcake price decreases with R347/ton.

[发布机构] University of the Free State