Agricultural commodities for the supermarket or the petrol station?

摘要

The current increasing demand for internationally traded agricultural commodities is fuelled by increasing world population growth, growing prosperity in emerging countries resulting in higher meat consumption, and the use of energy crops for power generation. This has resulted in higher prices for agricultural products as well as in increasing competition between the food and the energy sector for land and products. In Germany, supported by government subsidies, there are currently capacities for the production of 1 million m3 ethanol with capacities for a further 1.6 million m3 in the planning process. A table of all operating and planned bio-ethanol plants in Germany is shown. The demand for production land for energy crops is regionally different and depending on the location of these plants as well as historical land use. Bio-ethanol plants seem to have established particularly successfully in animal production areas where following changes in agricultural subsidies beef production had been reduced. It is concluded that cereal production profits most from the current situation due to increasing demand and prices whereas livestock farming is negatively affected due to higher fodder prices, higher rental prices and possible problems in the provision of land for liquid manure disposal.