And the price of camelina begins to surge too. I'm telling you, the biofuels revolution will be a boon to farmers who play their cards right. Link here.
Camelina price hiked as competition looms
The Associated Press
BILLINGS — Competition from surging grain prices prompted a Bigfork
biofuels developer to announce Friday it will boost its contract price
for the oilseed crop camelina.Great
Plains-The Camelina Company is one of two groups with plans to produce
a combined 200 million gallons of biofuels annually from camelina
within the next two to three years.
The companies are aiming to capitalize on rising interest for
crop-derived fuels such as biodiesel, touted as an alternative to
foreign oil. But reaching their lofty goals will require the companies
to secure contracts on an estimated 2 million acres of farmland.
That’s
a tough sell for farmers enjoying record-high wheat prices. Spring
wheat was priced at between $17 and $20 a bushel on Friday, said Lola
Raska with the Montana Grain Growers Association. She said about 5
million acres of wheat are planted each year in Montana.
To
compete, Great Plains said Friday it is increasing its camelina
contract price to $9 per bushel. Company founder Sam Huttenbauer said
the remaining gap with wheat prices would be covered by camelina’s low
“input” costs — meaning it needs fewer fertilizers and herbicides.
The price is roughly double what the company offered last year, he said.
“We
want to give them a reason to break into camelina this year,” said
Huttenbauer. He said Great Plains also will bump up the price for
farmers who had already signed $8-per-bushel contracts for 2008.
The
other camelina venture with large-scale aspirations in Montana is a
partnership between Seattle-based Targeted Growth and Green Earth Fuel
of Houston. Representatives of the venture could not be reached
immediately for comment.
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont.,
inserted a measure in the farm bill pending before Congress that would
offer crop insurance to camelina growers. He said Friday that high
wheat prices won’t be enough to stall the demand for camelina.
“I think it’s competitive and that’s the bottom line,” said Tester, a farmer from Big Sandy.
Great Plains also said Friday it will invest $20 million this year in an oilseed crushing facility and a biodiesel refinery.
The
company previously said it would announce a location for those projects
late last year, but Huttenbauer said Friday he is still trying to
finalize a site.
