US ethanol exports to India likely to hit a record in 2025
The export of ethanol by the United States to India is expected to appreciate for the second calendar year in a row during 2025 with expectations that the cargoes in terms of volume will rise to their highest level on record.
India imports fuel ethanol (ethanol) from the US, which is largely used in industries. It is a renewable fuel produced by fermenting sugar from biomass and typically corn in the US. Besides blending with petrol, ethanol is also used by pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and chemical industries.
According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data, fuel ethanol exports to India stood at around 3,539 thousand barrels during January-September 2025 averaging at more than 393 thousand barrels a month.
This is just a tad lower than the volumes exported to India during the same nine month period in 2020 calendar year at about 3,589 thousand barrels, which averaged at almost 399 thousand barrels per month.
Fuel ethanol exports to India during January-September 2025 have already surpassed the volumes shipped in the entire 2022 (1,734 thousand barrels) and 2023 (1,997 thousand barrels) calendar years.
Besides, analysts and traders anticipate that the entire 2025 exports of the commodity will surpass the exports during the years of 2020 (4,181 thousand barrels), 2021 (3,553 thousand barrels) and 2024 (4,515 thousand barrels).
The higher ethanol exports also reflects on India topping up its energy purchases, which have averaged around $12-13 billion annually, from the US. New Delhi expects to add another $12-13 annually to its energy import bill from Washington to balance bilateral trade.
During November last year, the US EIA in a report noted that India is among the top three export destinations for fuel ethanol.
After decreasing in 2022 and 2023 due to increasing supply chain costs and elevated US fuel ethanol prices, the exports to India have rebounded to record volumes in 2024, slightly exceeding the highs from 2017 to 2020, it added.
“The largest increase in fuel ethanol exports has been to India, which has ambitious fuel ethanol blend targets under its ethanol blended petrol (EBP) programme,” it noted.
Although India’s EBP programme prohibits the use of imported ethanol to meet blend targets, India uses imported ethanol for industrial purposes, freeing up domestic product for its transportation blend targets, the US EIA said.
“With reduced production of sugarcane and rice recently, India has relied more on imports of US fuel ethanol to meet industrial sector demand and free up domestic ethanol production for EBP targets,” it added.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), ethanol demand in India tripled between 2017 and 2021. In 2017 blending stood at 2 per cent, but by the summer of 2021 it touched 8 per cent.
Under the EBP programme, India aims to achieve an average blending of 20 per cent by the end of Ethanol Supply Year (ESY) 2025-26, November 2025 to October 2026, which commenced on a positive note with blending during the month of November 2025 hitting 20 per cent.
Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) achieved the target of 10 per cent ethanol blending in petrol in June 2022—five months ahead of the target. During ESY 2022-23, the blending stood at 12.06 per cent, which rose to 14.60 per cent in ESY 2023-24 and 19.24 per cent in ESY 2024-25.
Published on December 27, 2025
