By Mark Weinraub and Stephanie Kelly
RACCOON TOWNSHIP, Ind./NEW YORK, Dec 13 (Reuters) – When the U.S. ethanol trade was booming, Indiana farmer Paul Hodgen made good cash promoting a few quarter of his crop to an area facility that produced the corn-based gas.
Now that plant has stopped churning out ethanol and has as a substitute transformed to a grain elevator for storage, Hodgen nonetheless sells his corn there, however for a fraction of the worth.
“We’re struggling for demand,” stated Hodgen, a 40-year-old father of 4.
Hodgen’s troubles mirror the rising difficulties confronted by America’s corn farmers as a meltdown within the ethanol trade hits the corn market – including strains to farmers already dealing with poor climate and the U.S. commerce conflict with China.
Some 13 ethanol vegetation have shut since November 2018, roughly 4.4% of the nation’s capability, in a decline the biofuel trade blames on the Trump administration’s expanded use of…