Vivergo has announced a proposed cessation of production as of the 30th September. Vivergo is the UK’s largest manufacturer of bioethanol, a biofuel made mostly from domestic (UK-grown) wheat. Its announcement implies it is a permanent cessation and therefore presumably firm closure, although the wording it not very explicit.
The company blamed the UK Government’s ‘lack of pace to introduce E10 biofuel’, a bend of between 9% and 10% biofuel in petrol. The regulations currently encourage fuel manufacturers to incorporate 5% biofuel into their fuels, although Department of Transport data from August 2018 shows total ‘renewable fuel’ accounted for 3% of road fuel in 2017/2018. Most of this is biodiesel from waste vegetable oils.
The Vivergo website states that the firm uses 1.1 million tonnes of feed wheat per year, but other sources have suggested the plant has seldom operated at full capacity, for example having had a 4-month closure from December 2017 to April this year. Notwithstanding this, the closure, if permanent, would have a depressing impact on the price of wheat in the Yorkshire/Humberside area.
