Ethanol production in Germany rose 9.6% in 2013 to 672,028 mt (852,000 cu m or 225 million gallons), reaching the highest level since records began in 2007, German ethanol industry association BDBe said Thursday.
Nearly 40% or 267,074 mt of ethanol produced in 2013 in Germany, Europe's second-largest producer of the biofuel after France, came from sugarbeets.
This represents a rise of 5.2% from the previous year.
Around 2.8 million mt of sugarbeets were processed into bioethanol in 2013, corresponding to a share of around 11% of Germany's production of the crop.
The remaining 404,954 mt of ethanol produced in 2013 came from various starch grains, an increase of 12.8% from 2012.
Wheat is the most widely used raw material for ethanol production in Europe, accounting for 36% of the region's feedstock mix, according to industry group ePURE. Corn and sugarbeets add up to 23% each, while barley, rye and triticale share the remaining 17%.
