The base material footprint (BMF) is a measuring system that provides the theoretical collection area for a unit of biofuel base material. Eight different types of base materials of three countries were examined; four types of biofuel had been taken into account. According to the results, the collection area varied between 0.08-0.61 ha to produce 10 GJ biofuels. It required the smallest collection area the forest residues, while the largest had the corn stalk. The change of the collection area due to yield fluctuations in the last decade, was the largest in the case of corn and corn stalk for bioethanol, over 70% in a very droughty year. Further comparison was performed for the theoretical and real collection areas for corn. Under real conditions the collection of base materials needs 10 times bigger area. This can increase up to 20 due to utilization for animal feed and green manure.