The EU leads the world in the development of the biodiesel sector and in Austria there are currently eight large scale and two small-scale biodiesel plants, with a total capacity of more than 140,000 tonnes.

It is part of the country's push to position farmers as providers of reliable and secure heat from regional and sustainable biomass and achieving the target of 23 per cent renewable energy use by 2020.

The small town of Gussing, which was part of the recent International Federation of Agricultural Journalists Congress tour, was the first town in the EU to meet its own energy demands utilising the large areas of maize grown and wood chips from the area's extensive forests.