26-06-2025
AB Foods set to close bioethanol plant after US-UK trade deal
June 26 (Reuters) - Associated British Foods said it would close its bioethanol plant in northern England if the government does not provide the funding to alleviate the impact of the U.S.-UK trade by the time its consultation process for a wind down is complete.
The group said it would begin consultation with employees to effect an orderly wind-down immediately, while continuing to negotiate with the government.
Under the trade deal agreed with U.S. President Donald Trump, the UK's 19% tariffs on U.S. ethanol will fall to zero, through a 1.4 billion-litre (370 million gallon) quota - a figure equating to the size of the UK's entire ethanol market today.
AB Foods (ABF.L), opens new tab, which owns the Vivergo plant in Hull, and Ensus, which is owned by Germany's Sudzucker Group and operates a bioethanol plant in Teesside in Northern England, have warned that the deal, along with existing regulations that give U.S. producers an advantage in the British market, has made the operating environment impossible.
"Unless the government is able to provide both short-term funding of Vivergo's losses and a longer-term solution, we intend to close the plant once the consultation process has completed and the business has fulfilled its contractual obligations," AB Foods said.
