Bloomberg; Argentina is Shipping More Biodiesel

August 27, 2009

Argentina Is Shipping More Biodiesel to Europe, Biopetrol Says

2009-08-27 09:12:38.251 GMT

 By Rachel Graham

Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) — Biopetrol Industries AG, a Swiss biodiesel producer, said imports of the fuel from Argentina are growing because of lower export taxes on the fuel relative to one of its feedstocks.

“Increasing amounts of indirectly subsidized biodiesel have been coming to Europe from Argentina since the second quarter,” the Zug, Switzerland-based company said today in an e-mailed statement.

The European Union imposed five-year tariffs on U.S. biodiesel earlier this year to help EU producers counter American subsidies and price undercutting. Biopetrol called on the EU and Germany to act to protect against imports from Argentina.

Argentina has export tax rates of 20 percent on biodiesel and as much as 36 percent on soybean oil, a feedstock for the fuel, according to brokerage SCB Group. The country’s biodiesel exports more than doubled to 140,487 tons in July from a year earlier, according to Argentinean lobby Carbio.

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