The German Federal Statistical Office has confirmed Germany’s brisk foreign trade of biodiesel. The total volume amounted to around 3 million metric tons (approximately 900.6 million gallons), with imports showing a striking growth.

In the 2018 calendar year, German foreign trade of biodiesel hit new record highs, both in exports, and, first and foremost, imports. The latter exceeded the mark of 1 million tons for the first time, reaching 1.2 million tons (360.2 million gallons), the German Federal Statistical Office reported. This was up just less than 55 percent, or 430,000 tons (129 million gallons), from 2017.

According to investigations conducted by Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (AMI), the bulk of the deliveries, around 860,000 tons (258.2 million gallons), came via the Netherlands and Belgium. In other words, the share of these countries more than doubled. However, this biodiesel did not only originate from the Benelux countries, but was sourced from third countries and then distributed in Central and Northern Europe.

Germany also sold a record amount of slightly more than 1.8 million tons (540.4 million gallons) of biodiesel abroad. Exports were up around 16 percent year-on-year. Traditionally, the key recipient countries are the Netherlands and Poland, where demand has remained virtually unchanged over the past three years.