German biodiesel foreign trade increases

German imports and exports of biodiesel increased steadily in the past six years. The Netherlands was the most important trading partner, followed by Belgium and Poland.

German exports of biodiesel grew steadily over the past years with the exception of 2021. More specifically, exports rose from 1.61 million tonnes in 2017 to 2.72 million tonnes in 2022 – translating to an increase of around 69%.

The Netherlands remained the largest country of destination throughout the entire period and exports to this neighbouring country almost doubled between 2017 and 2022.

While in 2017 exports were at 583,289 tonnes, they amounted to just less than 1.2 million tonnes in the past calendar year.

Belgium was ranked as the second most important importer, but with a much lower share. Poland and Sweden followed in third and fourth place respectively.

German biodiesel imports also rose steadily with the exception of the year 2021. More specifically, imports doubled between 2017 and 2022 to around 1.54 million tonnes.

Again, the Netherlands was the biggest trading partner with the Rotterdam port being Europe’s primary hub for supplies. Germany received around 782,896 tonnes of biodiesel from the Netherlands in 2022. This compared to 300,959 tonnes in 2017.

Belgium and Poland followed as second and third biggest suppliers of biodiesel to Germany.

The Union zur Förderung von Oel- und Proteinpflanzen e. V. (UFOP) has drawn attention to the Global Biofuel Alliance, which was recently founded on the initiative of the Indian government by the heads of government of the US, Brazil, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates on the edges of the G 20 summit. The UFOP regrets that Italy is the only EU member of this Alliance, not Germany or the EU Commission.