07/10/07 Biodiesel production woes

Rob Black was losing money at his biodiesel production plant in New Plymouth and less than a year after he started he's had to stop. The reason; the skyrocketing price of soybean oil. USDA's chief economist Keith Collins says farmers planted 15 percent fewer soybeans this year than last and the price of soybean oil continues to go up. COLLINS "Biodiesel made from soybean oil has already been on a very thin margin over the past year as global vegetable oil prices have gone up and this is simply going to mean that it is going to be that much more difficult to generate a good margin with biodiesel production." Collins says our cutback on soybean production and the growing global demand for vegetable oil is driving the price up. Rob Black says that's the only oil he could use to get the quality his customers wanted. So what's the future for Black and Idaho's one and only biodiesel producer, Blue Sky? BLACK "The several million dollar question for my brother and myself." He says Idaho grown rapeseed and canola, or used vegetable oils aren't economical enough to use as feedstock. Like so many other biodiesel producers he's done producing for now. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott