Source: Chris Scott, MEATINGPLACE, 12/5/16


The U.S. poultry industry – which has enjoyed several years of lower feed prices – is bracing for price increases following a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report on revised projected volume for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) for 2017 and 2018.

The EPA last week released final RFS figures that call for 15 billion gallons of ethanol to be produced from corn next year, about 200 million more gallons than the original projection announced in May. The agency set total biofuel levels – including corn-generated ethanol and biodiesel – at 19.28 billion gallons, up 6 percent from 2016. The revised figure is generating concerns that the amount of corn set aside for RFS and the effect on corn prices next year will both be on the rise.

“The RFS has cost our industry $59 billion more in feed costs since it was implemented,” National Chicken Council President Mike Brown said in a statement. “The RFS bureaucracy has taken on a life of its own… American chicken producers are only one drought, flood or freeze away from another crisis.”

The poultry industry has enjoyed three years of significantly lower corn prices, reducing their costs for feeding chickens. Corn prices hit an historic high of $8.39 per bushel in the summer of 2013, but have remained below $4.50 per bushel since hitting a low of $2.85 a bushel in the fall of 2014, according to Macrotrends. A bushel of corn cost $3.44 per bushel yesterday, the data tracking company said.

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