U.S. ethanol exports hit $4.8 billion as distillers grains soften

$4.8 billion of non-beverage ethanol moved out of the United States in 2025, up 11% from 2024, while distillers grains exports fell 11.3% to $2.8 billion, underscoring a split market that is rewarding fuel sales more than feed coproducts. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service released its 2025 U.S. Agricultural Export Yearbook on May 13, and the data put ethanol at No. 12 among U.S. commodity exports by value, with distillers grains at No. 18.

Canada stayed the top ethanol outlet at $1.703 billion, but the sharper move came from the European Union, where U.S. ethanol sales jumped 110% to $881 million. India, the United Kingdom, Colombia, South Korea, the Philippines, Mexico, Peru and Brazil rounded out the major markets. The pattern shows ethanol plants are increasingly leaning on export pull in markets tied to low-carbon fuel mandates and blending policy, not just domestic gasoline demand.

The distillers grains side looked weaker even as the product remained a major revenue stream. Mexico was the largest destination at $507 million, and New Zealand posted a 132% increase to $142 million, but the overall dollar value slipped below the five-year average of $3.1 billion. That divergence matters because distillers grains often help protect plant margins when ethanol prices soften, and a weaker coproduct stream can tighten the economics for dry mills that depend on both barrels and feed.

Industry groups said the broader export picture remained strong. The Renewable Fuels Association said U.S. ethanol exports reached a record $7.6 billion in 2025, with 2.18 billion gallons shipped to more than 80 countries, equal to one out of every eight gallons of U.S. ethanol production. The group also said distillers grains shipments totaled 11.6 million metric tons, showing that tonnage and value moved in different directions as prices eased.

USDA Economic Research Service data showed how policy support abroad kept reshaping demand. U.S. ethanol exports to Canada rose from 322 million gallons in 2019/20 to 758 million gallons in 2024/25, while the Netherlands imported 282 million gallons, up from 16 million gallons in 2015/16. USDA’s Canada Biofuels Annual said Canada is the world’s second-largest ethanol importer and takes nearly all of its imports from the United States, with the Clean Fuel Regulation carrying the potential to lift ethanol use by another 700 million liters by 2030. For U.S. plants, that leaves 2025 looking less like a one-product export story and more like a market where ethanol is gaining ground even as the feed coproduct leg of the business weakens.