Chinanews, Beijing, December 19 – National Development and Reform Commission issued a regulation on restricting bio-fuel extraction from corns on December 18, 2006.

 

Currently, about 20% of all the petrol consumed in China is alcoholic petrol from grains, like corns. 27 cities and towns in 5 provinces and autonomous regions are using bio-fuels. CNPC and Sinopec are ready to produce 10.20 million tons of alcoholic petrol every year.

 

Though corn output has greatly increased in the past few years, it still can not meet the needs of the booming bio-fuel extracting industry. In 2001, only 12.5 million tons of corns were used to produce bio-fuels, but the figure jumped to 23 million in 2005, a 84% growth, while the total output of corns only increased by no more than 21.9%.

 

Thus NDRC has imposed restrictions to guide the industry. After all, China still needs more corn to feed its people in the first place.