Exports of U.S. ethanol began with notable growth in the first month of the new marketing year, according to recent data published by U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Global Agricultural Trade System (GATS).

The top three customers of U.S. ethanol in September 2016 were Canada, Brazil and China, respectfully. Exports of U.S. ethanol totaled 99.6 million gallons (903,000 metric tons of corn equivalent).

Canada imported more than 27.9 million gallons (253,000 metric tons of corn equivalent) of U.S. ethanol this September, an increase of 34 percent from the previous month and 7 percent from September 2015. U.S. ethanol exports to Canada had been down since December 2014.

U.S. ethanol exports to Brazil equated to 18.1 million gallons (164,000 metric tons of corn equivalent) in September 2016, an exponential increase from the same time last year. This export volume represents the fourth highest to Brazil in the past 12 months.

China imported a total of 17.8 million gallons (162,000 metric tons of corn equivalent) of U.S. ethanol in September. This marks a four-month high of U.S. ethanol exports to China and an exponential increase from August.

This surge in ethanol exports has been the highest since December 2011, when it totaled 178 million gallons (1.6 million in corn equivalent). The price of U.S. ethanol has been significantly lower than other competitors, causing sales to increase during September.

More ethanol sales data are available at the U.S. Grains Council’s Feed Grains In All Forms portal, here.