London (Platts)--8Oct2009/819 am EDT/1219 GMT

Germany's biofuels producers are hopeful the country's new government formed by the coalition of the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union parties as well as the Free Democratic Party and elected on September 27 will once again support the biofuels industry.

"The protagonists in the coalition parties have positioned themselves in the run-up to the elections on issues concerning environmental and energy policy with virtually identical statements clearly in favor of biofuels," producer Biopetrol said in a statement published October 1.

"Investors and employees in the biodiesel industry now expect the new government in Germany to honour its election promises," the company added.

German bioethanol producer CropEnergies also said it welcomed a dialogue with the new government and that it believed the new coalition understood the "great potential" of the biofuels industry.

"CropEnergies expects the new German government to introduce measures to meet the requirements of the Renewable Energies Directive," the company's COO Lutz Guderjahn told Platts in an emailed statement.

"As a first step, we expect the new federal government in Germany to take steps to ensure the introduction of E10 at German gas stations," Guderjahn added.

E10 is a mixture of 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline.

Germany's biofuels industry association, VDB, also said it hoped the new government would be once again open to discussion on biofuels.

"The discussion about biofuels became unreasonable during the last government and we now expect the new coalition to be open to discussing new possibilities with the industry and lobby groups," a VDB spokesperson told Platts in an interview.

The former German government approved on June 18 a bill to reduce the country's 2009 biofuels mandates to 5.25% from 6.25%.

--Isis Almeida, isis_almeida@platts.com