Soybean oil remains the largest individual feedstock in U.S. biomass-based diesel production, but its share has narrowed as other vegetable oils, animal fats and waste-derived oils gain ground. In marketing year (MY) 2024/25, soybean oil supplied 34 percent of disclosed total feedstock use, at 11.8 billion pounds—more than 1 billion pounds below the previous marketing year, according to the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS).
That shift is not simply a story of replacing soy with one substitute. Feedstock volumes moved in different directions, imports became more important, and the combined category includes both biodiesel and renewable diesel. The figures below are U.S. marketing-year data, not calendar-year 2025 totals.
What is trimming soybean oil’s lead?
USDA ERS’s December 2025 Oil Crops Outlook reports that soybean oil accounted for 34 percent of total feedstock used for U.S. biomass-based diesel production in MY 2024/25. The 11.8 billion pounds used was down by more than 1 billion pounds from MY 2023/24.
Other inputs include oils from crops, animal fats and used oils or greases. USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) has described soybean oil losing share to tallow and canola oil; ERS’s more recent report says corn oil and tallow use reached records in MY 2024/25. These are different commodity classes, not interchangeable versions of one vegetable-oil market.
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- Vegetable oils: soybean, canola and corn oil.
- Animal fats: including tallow.
- Waste-derived feedstocks: including used cooking oil and other oils or greases.
The USDA FAS account of the changing feedstock market is available in U.S. Renewable Diesel Production Growth Drastically Impacts Global Feedstock Trade.
Volume fell as well as soy’s share
A smaller share does not by itself mean that a feedstock’s use fell: its share can decline if competing inputs grow faster. In this case, however, ERS reports both a lower soybean-oil volume and a broader decline in disclosed vegetable oils and fats. Their combined use in biomass-based diesel production fell nearly 3 billion pounds year over year, to 34 billion pounds in MY 2024/25. Canola oil use also fell by more than 1 billion pounds, while corn oil and tallow use reached records, according to the same ERS outlook.
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The 34-billion-pound figure covers disclosed vegetable oils and fats; it is not the total of every feedstock used. Nor should it be confused with the 37.2 billion pounds of feedstocks ERS reported for MY 2023/24. That earlier total, cited in ERS’s feedstock trade chart, is for a different marketing year and a broader feedstock measure.
Imports are part of the changing supply mix
Domestic production is not the only source of feedstock. ERS found that foreign exporters’ share of feedstocks supplied to the United States rose from 13 percent in MY 2020/21 to 29 percent in MY 2023/24. The agency identifies increased imports of used cooking oil, tallow and canola oil as part of that change. These figures describe the share supplied by foreign exporters through MY 2023/24; they are not an import-share estimate for MY 2024/25.
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ERS’s analysis of exporters supplying U.S. biomass-based diesel feedstocks provides that comparison. It helps explain why a change in U.S. feedstock composition can reflect both what producers use and where those inputs come from.
Biomass-based diesel combines two fuel pathways
USDA ERS uses “biomass-based diesel” to include biodiesel and renewable diesel. Biodiesel is blended with conventional diesel, while renewable diesel is a drop-in fuel. Renewable diesel production first exceeded biodiesel production in MY 2022/23, according to ERS’s production comparison.
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Because the combined category spans different fuel pathways and plant types, an overall feedstock shift does not establish that every biodiesel or renewable-diesel producer changed its recipe in the same way. The EIA feedstock table separates plant categories, but its broader tables also include biofuels beyond biodiesel and renewable diesel and note that feedstocks can include refinery co-processing. Comparisons need to use the relevant fuel and plant rows rather than treating every listed biofuel input as part of one total.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why the period and denominator matter
MY 2024/25 is the latest detailed marketing-year period in the ERS outlook cited here. It is not calendar year 2025. ERS says the Energy Information Administration finalized the MY 2024/25 feedstock usage data on November 28, 2025, and its reported totals cover feedstocks disclosed in the underlying data.
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The 34-percent soybean-oil figure is a share of total feedstock used, not a share of vegetable oils alone. A separate historical ERS statistic says 46 percent of U.S. soybean-oil production went to biofuel in MY 2022/23. That figure uses a different denominator and an earlier year, so it should not be read as a competing estimate of soybean oil’s share of biomass-based diesel feedstock.
ERS compiles data from USDA and EIA and publishes statistics on both calendar-year and marketing-year bases in its U.S. Bioenergy Statistics. EIA also publishes monthly data. A monthly calendar-year observation, an annual calendar-year total and a marketing-year figure are not direct comparisons unless the periods and categories are aligned.
What the figures say about market pressure
The feedstock shift does not establish one cause. ERS says uncertainty in 2025 around renewable volume obligations and small refinery exemptions curtailed production. USDA FAS points to competition from lower-cost Canadian canola and feedstocks with lower carbon intensity. These are agency explanations for market conditions, not proof that any one factor accounts for the entire change in feedstock shares.
The practical takeaway is that soybean oil remains a major individual input, but it no longer represents as large a portion of the disclosed total as before. Other feedstocks—including tallow and corn oil—have gained importance, imports contribute more to supply than they did in MY 2020/21, and total use can move differently from any single feedstock’s share.
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