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Food & Agriculture, Strategy & Analysis Article, biofuels industry
Article at a glance:

Betting on biofuels

  • The emerging biofuel industry is attractive to many companies but full of uncertainty.
  • Major factors affecting the industry’s profitability—feedstock costs, regulation, and technologies—are in flux.
  • Despite these uncertainties, waiting to enter might be costly because resources are in short supply.
  • Companies that decide to enter now will have to mitigate risk by hedging their bets and building relationships that could help reduce uncertainty and volatility.
This article contains the following exhibits:
  • Exhibit: Changes in fuels regulation and the price of fuel components, as well as supply-demand imbalances of ethanol and corn, triggered large swings in the allocation of profits between farmers, ethanol producers, and marketers in 2005 and 2006.
  • Sidebar exhibit: Biofuels’ economic viability depends on its cost-effectiveness vis-à-vis gasoline.

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