b'One of the first impacts we saw from COVID-19impact on gasoline demand. was on restaurant demand, Newton said.88% For 2020, if folks drive a mile less or 10% less, that When you look at how Americans accessed food inis the declinemeans youll have 10% less ethanol demand over the 2018, Americans spent $1.7 trillion on food. More thanof in-storecourse of the year, Meyer said. When we switch to half of thata whopping $678 billionwas spent atclothing sales2021, the Department of Energy is saying were going restaurants, with another $253 billion being spent onfrom Feb-Aprilto need 5% less motor gasoline. Really what we see other food away from home.2020.in 2021 demand in ethanol domestically is dependent Of course, this immediately caused some problemsupon what the EPA says.in the agriculture industry. The dairy industry facedMeyer said this dependent on whether or not they market loss and had to dump milk. Idaho reported that8%want to put pressure on that system to absorb more, there were potato growers who faced food distributionis the increaseor if they want to account for lower demand by setting companies canceling their orders for frozen french fries.in online retaila lower RFS.While we tried to move some of that through thesales month byWeve seen ethanol prices drop sharply into nega-retail channel, we started observing challenges of amonth in 2020.tive profitability territory, Newton explained. Were disruptive supply chain, he said.seeing ethanol plants start to idle capacity across the In March, we did see the panic buying push retailcountry or close down. As a result, ethanol production sales and grocery stores up to a record $73 billion,42%has declined about 40% in the month of April. Were Newton said. In April, we continued to see strong gro- was the declineseveral weeks or months away from seeing ethanol cery sales at $63 billion, but what we lost was a veryin ethanoldemand back to where it was.significant decline in food service and drinking expen- productionThe damage to agriculture is significant, Newton ditures, which was down from February 2020 aboutfrom 2019said. Thats why additional support is so desperately 47% in April.Aprils month- going to be needed in the next couple of months.In terms of the ethanol industry, there were twoend comparedUncertainty is likely to continue on these things, events that really hit that market: the oil war betweento 2020s AprilMeyer says. The length and breadth of COVID impacts Saudi Arabia and the United States that produced anmonth-end.will tip the scales on many things here. We dont really increase in production which resulted in a sharp declineknow the extended supply chain impacts for 2021.SWof oil prices, and the stay-at-home orders and their Disruptive BIG-BAGS for long term seed conservationThere is a growing need for safe and sustainable storage of seeds. We have developed a specific conservation process & system based on CO2-rich atmosphere. Our patented Nox BIG-BAGS allows you to : Secure your seeds without using chemical treatments or cold storage.Protect seed quality over time (cold tests indicates stabilized germination rate).Easily integrate our packaging process into any industrial line.Our new semi-automatic BIG-BAG packaging lineAlready overintegrates into any industrial line and allows you to3500 tons of seedsrapildy deploy and maintain natural protection for allsafely storedyour seeds. in Nox BIG-BAGS.For more information contact us at: nox@noxstorage.com I+33 6 44 67 39 25I www.noxstorage.comWant to discuss your project? Scan this code with your phone to book a meeting with one of our representatives.SEPTEMBER 2020SEEDWORLD.COM /11'