IARN — Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig has announced that Growmark FS and Kwik Trip | Kwik Star are the winners of the 2023 Renewable Fuels Marketing Awards. The awards were created to recognize fuel marketers that have gone above and beyond in their efforts to promote and sell renewable fuels. The award winners were spotlighted during the FUELIowa annual meeting held Wednesday in Des Moines.
“Iowa’s renewable fuels industry continues to thrive, creating value-added markets for our crops, employing thousands of Iowans, and offering cleaner and more affordable fuel to consumers,” said Secretary Naig. “Growmark FS is being honored for their efforts to market ethanol and Kwik Trip | Kwik Star is receiving recognition for their biodiesel marketing. I want to thank both of those companies and their employees for continuing to build demand for Iowa produced renewable fuels.”
Secretary’s Ethanol Marketing Award – Growmark FS
Since the 1920s, the Growmark FS (Fast Stop) has been providing fuels across the Midwest. Today, they are a leading supplier of refined and renewable fuels and operate 19 Fast Stop locations in northwest Iowa. Through those Fast Stop locations, over 4.5 million gallons of refined fuels are sold each year. Fast Stop operates in communities with a size of 264 residents in Yale, Iowa, to 24,912 residents in Fort Dodge. Fast Stop offers E15 at all 19 locations. At seven of these locations, they offer higher blends of ethanol such as E30 and E85.
Secretary’s Biodiesel Marketing Award – Kwik Trip | Kwik Star
Kwik Trip was founded in 1965 with headquarters in La Crosse, Wisconsin. They opened their first Iowa location under the name Kwik Star in 1993. Kwik Trip | Kwik Star has been selling biodiesel in all their diesel gallons in Iowa since 2016. They offer separate diesel islands at over 300 of the 800+ locations across the Midwest. Kwik Trip has embraced including biodiesel blends from 5 percent – 20 percent across Iowa and only purchases biodiesel that meets or exceeds the ASTM D6751 standard and BQ-9000 quality protocol. Since 2020, Kwik Trip has been awarded over 25 biodiesel grants through the Iowa Renewable Fuels Infrastructure Program to update existing infrastructure to sell biodiesel blends at locations across Iowa.
Iowa Renewable Fuels Industry
Iowa leads the nation in production of ethanol and biodiesel and is the first state in the country to have an E15 standard. Based on 2021 analysis, the renewable fuels industry accounted for over $5 billion of Iowa GDP, generated $2.6 billion of income for Iowa households and supported nearly 46,000 jobs throughout the entire Iowa economy.
The Iowa Renewable Fuels Infrastructure Program offers cost-share grants to help fuel retailers with the installation, replacement and conversion of motor fuel storage and dispensing infrastructure for E85 ethanol blends, registered E15 ethanol blends, and biodiesel from equipment that is B20 compatible. The program also provides grant incentives to biodiesel terminal and storage facilities. The program is managed by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship and, to date, the state has invested approximately $60 million while private industry has invested over $200 million.
Story courtesy of the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network.
Photo courtesy of the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS)
