Vegetable oil prices see increases – rapeseed up 15%, palm up 14%, soybean up 6%

In Germany, UFOP reports that vegetable oil prices recently showed a firmer trend and that rising demand and a weaker euro led to a rise in asking prices. Following the weakness in crude oil prices in the first half year of 2017, OPEC’s cap on production and political crises in the Middle East had their effects and sent prices rising by, to date, 30 per cent from this year’s low in June. Vegetable oil prices did not all follow this trend. While rapeseed oil went up 15 per cent in the same period, palm oil and soybean oil prices climbed 14 per cent and 6 per cent respectively. Palm oil benefited from the fact that output growth was lower than expected. By contrast, the EU-28’s large stocks of soybean oil and rapeseed oil put a damper on the firming of prices, Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (AMI) reported. The EU’s decision to lower import duties on Argentinian biodiesel temporarily curbed demand. However, the German biodiesel industry recently showed growing interest, which led to sharp mark-ups, especially on rapeseed oil.