Irish agribusiness ClonBio, which manufactures over 500m litres of ethanol every year from its production facility in Hungary, saw its pre-tax profits jump 143% last year to €95m on the back of stronger ethanol prices. ClonBio’s sales grew by 26% last year to hit €361m.

However, ClonBio said profits are likely to be down in 2020 due to recent ethanol price deflation as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown. The company has also diverted ethanol to be used as hand sanitiser in the fight against the virus.

Owned by Dublin businessman Mark Turley, ClonBio operates the largest bio-ethanol refinery in Europe purchasing over 1.2m tonnes of maize (corn) from Hungarian farmers every year.

ClonBio is enormously disappointed that Ireland has continued to drag its feet on biofuels

According to the company, average ethanol prices were 22% higher last year due to increased demand for ethanol after countries like the Netherlands, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria moved to E10 (10% ethanol: 90% petrol) for motor fuels. Irish motor fuel remains at E5 levels.

“As an Irish-owned company at the vanguard of sustainable energy solutions ClonBio is enormously disappointed that Ireland has continued to drag its feet on biofuels,” said ClonBio CEO Mark Turley.

Aside from ethanol, ClonBio’s bio-refinery in Hungary also produces 300,000t of distillers grains animal feed and 10,000t of corn oil as by-products from the ethanol-making process. These animal feeds are exported to over 30 countries across Europe.

Last year also marked the start of a €150m investment programme by ClonBio into new areas such as solar and bio-materials.