22 FEBRUARY 2016 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com
FON: Is use of the mark growing?
Crouch: Certainly it is growing. What we've found is pro-
ducers will often upgrade their quality control, their quality
assurance program and run it in-house for, sometimes, as much
as a year before they will step up and contract with an auditing
agency because nobody wants to start to have their fuel certified
and then lose that certification. So they're all being very judi-
cious and careful, and that's appropriate. It's coming slowly, but
surely. We'll look back at this as a time of rapid change, but within
ten years all the dust will have settled and all the fuel in North
America will be certified.
FON: Most of the pellet business continues to be bagged prod-
uct, while the bulk distribution of wood pellets is seen as having
growth potential. Some fuel oil dealers, seeking to diversify, have
explored the bulk pellets business. What is the state of the bulk
market today and what is the outlook for it?
Crouch: The bulk market is growing slowly but inevitably,
and it's growing in parts of the country where consumers are
used to buying their energy in bulk—i.e., in fuel oil country.
Consumers in fuel oil country are the leading candidates for that
kind of transition.
FON: Why do you say the bulk market is growing "inevitably?"
Crouch: Because it's such a logical next extension. Imagine if
everyone bought their fuel oil in barrels and someone came along
and said, 'We'll put a tank in your yard.' It wouldn't happen over-
night because of the initial cost, but it would be inevitable because
it's so much more convenient. Fuel oil is incredibly convenient, and
pellets in bags are not. That's why, to me, it's an inevitable transition.
It's a slow one, because of the additional first costs, but it will come.
FON: Is growth in the bulk segment mostly on the residential
or on the commercial/institutional side?
Crouch: There are companies which are focused on residential,
but commercial and institutional is growing slowly but surely. The
dorm at Dartmouth College [converted to pellet-fired equipment
