Rapeseed supply shortfall in EU

In Germany, UFOP reports that the supply situation in the EU 28 rapeseed market continues to be tight in 2017/18. However, with production growing more strongly than consumption, imports are expected to decline. Stocks are set to remain stable.

The EU Commission anticipates a year-on-year rise in rapeseed harvest of around 1.7 million tonnes to around 21.8 million tonnes in 2017. Processing in the 2017/18 marketing year is likely to increase by 3.4 per cent to 24.1 million tonnes because of the larger output and to achieve efficient utilization of processing capacities. This means that there is a shortage of 2.3 million tonnes of rapeseed for the supply and demand balance to be level. The previous year’s gap amounted to 3.2 million tonnes. For this reason, Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft mbH expects imports from third countries to decline by 0.7 million tonnes to 3.5 million tonnes and projects supplies to grow slightly by 6 per cent to 1.1 million tonnes. The production increases in 2017 were due to favourable weather conditions at the time of sowing and warm and dry early-summer weather in many parts of northern and eastern Europe. Whereas the area harvested in the EU increased by 2.7 per cent to 6.7 million hectares from 2016/17, yields rose significantly more strongly, by 5.7 per cent to 32.5 decitonnes per hectare. In France, which is the biggest producer of rapeseed in the EU 28, farmers harvested 5.7 million tonnes (around 13.5 per cent) more than the previous year. Yields surged on average 25.2 per cent, whereas the area harvested declined 9.4 per cent. Farmers in Poland, the UK and Romania also saw a 20 to 30 per cent increase in quantity of rapeseed harvested.