British wheat doubts

THE CURRENT run on British wheat is a forerunner for future years, when the Irish animal-feed industry can no longer rely on grain supplies from our nearest neighbour.

Drought in Russia has created extra demand for British wheat — but there is also growing demand from the country’s expanding ethanol industry, which uses wheat as a raw material for transport fuel. Eventually, Britain’s entire exportable surplus of wheat, usually about two million tonnes, could be sucked up by the ethanol industry.

Already, imports of distillers’ grain are growing from Britain, and this ethanol industry by-product will largely replace wheat from Britain, if the country’s ‘green’ fuel industry expands.