Corn growers eye marine biofuels as major new demand source

National Corn Growers Association on July 1 said marine fuel could add 3 billion bushels of corn demand as farmers face a projected fourth consecutive year of losses in 2026. The group paired that estimate with a new report, NCGA Releases Demand Strategy for U.S. Corn’s Next 250 Years, meant to secure new demand for American corn. In a separate social post, NCGA said capturing 10% of the jet fuel market for sustainable aviation fuel would mean 1.7 billion bushels of new demand.

Lane Howard, NCGA’s director of biofuels, brought that message to the ISCC Technical Stakeholder Conference on Alternative Marine Fuels on June 10. His presentation, Developments of Marine Fuels in North America and the Role Agriculture Can Play, described NCGA as representing more than 40,000 dues-paying U.S. corn farmer members and 27 affiliated state corn organizations. Howard’s case was straightforward: U.S. agriculture can supply the feedstocks the marine sector will need at scale, turning shipping fuel into a potential corn outlet, not just a decarbonization headline.

The policy backdrop was already broadening beyond North America. The International Maritime Organization held a Technical Seminar on Marine Biofuels on February 12 to improve understanding and share recent experience using biofuels as a low-GHG marine fuel. That put marine biofuels on the agenda of the global body that shapes bunker-fuel rules, even as growers were trying to turn that interest into bushels.

NCGA had been warning about market pressure before the marine-fuel push sharpened. On January 12, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture released its World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates, the group published Corn Growers Alarmed by New Supply Projections. The July report and the marine-fuel messaging show NCGA looking for demand outside food, feed and ethanol, with marine fuel and SAF now being counted as part of the same market-creation strategy.