The Agriculture Department aims for a February launch for a revived government report on ethanol production, says a spokesman. It would be the first of several reports that USDA will produce after they were dropped by the Census Bureau during budget cuts in 2011. The others include soybean crushings, cotton mill use and stocks, wheat flour milling, and data on fats and oils. USDA announced on Sept 29 that it would begin publication of the reports in 2015 but the dates were not determined.
USDA expects to issue the first edition of the ethanol report as part of its annual Outlook Forum in late February. The ethanol report and the other reports are keenly followed by industry, traders and the government as a reliable gauge of output and demand for commodities and for indications of the overall economic condition of the country.
The flour milling and cotton consumption reports would appear in April and the oilseed crush report and the fats and oils reports would be issued in July, said Reuters.