Reduced rapeseed processing

In Germany, UFOP reports that small rapeseed crops in Germany and the EU-28, inadequate third-country supply, unsatisfactory margins and, on top of all that, low water levels in rivers. German oil mills have processed less rapeseed in the running marketing year than a year earlier.

Already in the marketing year 2017/18, German oil mills cut back on processing because feedstock supply was low. When another small rapeseed crop was harvested in 2018, there was even less domestic rapeseed available.

The decline was not fully set off by imports, because some of the traditional rapeseed supplying countries also reaped a smaller harvest of rapeseed. In general, the share of domestic rapeseed in total consumption was 43 per cent, the same level as 2017.

From July to November 2018, German oil mills processed around 3.7 million tonnes of rapeseed. This translates to a decline of just under 200,000 tonnes year-on-year. On average, processing amounted to 741,600 tonnes per month. By comparison, previous average monthly tonnages were 785,400 in 2017 and even 814,600 in 2016.

The decline in rapeseed use was not set off by increases in other oilseeds as their processing volumes also dropped from the previous year.

Official rapeseed processing figures for December 2018 are not available yet. However, Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft mbH (AMI) expects a strong slowdown from the same month the previous year. The reason given is the low water levels in inland waterways, which on the one hand slowed the dispatch of by-products, above all rapeseed meal, and on the other hand noticeably curtailed the delivery of feedstock. Since most foreign rapeseed is delivered directly by ship, its processing could have seen a particularly sharp decline, because in December 2018, ships on the River Rhine were only allowed to be loaded to one fourth their capacity. Stocks, which stood at 250,000 tonnes at the beginning of December, likely compensated for part of the shortfall. Nevertheless, processing of rapeseed went down in December. This was noticeable in the rapeseed meal market into January.