Distillery by-products under review

With many distillery byproducts currently being diverted away from the livestock food chain into government-subsidised renewable heat schemes, a review is to be carried out to discover how the current grant scheme is skewing this traditional market.

Distillery co-products such as draff and dark grains have been an important source of protein and fibre for livestock feed in recent decades - but the amount available for feed has plummeted by over 60,000 tonnes in recent years and prices have increased dramatically.

This price increase has been driven by competing demands for distillery coproducts from the bioenergy sector, which uses them for generating low carbon gas.

The increased demand for use of these products in bio-energy has, in turn been driven by UK Government incentive schemes such as the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) which was promoted as an important means of helping businesses and households to decarbonise their heat supplies.

Farmers have long called “foul” over the high level of subsidisation being paid to such energy schemes, claiming that it unfairly discriminates against those trying to buy the products for the traditional livestock market – especially as the by-products destined for energy have achieved additional support as they have been classified as “waste” with no other viable outlet.

And yesterday the Scottish Government – through rural economy secretary, Fergus Ewing and energy minister, paul wheel house - announced that it was to discuss the issue with abroad range of stakeholders to assess the impact of UK Government bioenergy incentive schemes on competition for bio-resources and to consider what moves could be taken to promote a fair market for distillery co-products.