Wheat fears as bioethanol plants face closure

THE UK's largest bioethanol plant says it has received its final scheduled wheat delivery as crisis talks continue with the Government to try to keep it open.

- 

Vivergo Fuels, near Hull, has said it is facing closure within weeks following the decision to end the 19% tariff on American bioethanol imports as part of the recent UK-US trade deal.

The plant buys more than a million tonnes of British wheat each year from more than 4,000 farms and says it has purchased from 12,000 individual farms over the past decade.

Managing director Ben Hackett wrote to growers earlier this year explaining that the plant will only be able to honour existing contractual obligations for wheat purchases while uncertainty continues. Mr Hackett said the last scheduled load arrived at the plant on Friday.