(NAFB) – Brazil last week announced it will lower the percentage of vegetable oil blended into petroleum diesel.

Brazil will reduce the blend from 13 percent, or B13, to ten percent, or B10. Brazil’s government claims the change is the result of the high cost of biodiesel, citing the elevated price of domestic soybeans and soybean oil.

Michael Cordonnier of Soybean and Corn Advisor Inc. writes, “The industry feels this will throw the biodiesel sector into disarray because they had already made the investments needed to increase the blend percentage to 15 percent by the year 2023, which was the stated goal of the government.”

Biofuel proponents in Brazil criticized the action and asked it to be rescinded. Industry experts in Brazil estimate the announcement will reduce the use of soybean oil by 650,000 tons per year, and soybean crushing would decline by 3.25 million tons per year.

Brazil has previously lowered biodiesel blends citing an insufficient supply of soybeans.