More domestic rapeseed processed

According to information published by the German Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE), traders at the co-op and wholesale level in Germany by the end of December 2021 had taken delivery of around 2.2 million tonnes of rapeseed. This was up 116,500 tonnes on the same period a year earlier. On the other hand, in the first half of the marketing year 2021/22, rapeseed processed by German oil mills amounted to around 4.7 million tonnes. This was down around 1.4 per cent on the period July to December 2020. The amounts of rapeseed oil and meal obtained were correspondingly smaller.

Whereas German oil mills processed increasingly less German rapeseed in recent years, the share rose over the first five months of the current crop year. According to calculations made by Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (mbH), 47 per cent, or just less than half, came from Germany, which translates to a 43 per cent increase. In other words, the ratio of domestic and imported rapeseed was nearly balanced for the first time in five years. Until 2016/17, with harvests exceeding 4.3 million tonnes per year, more than half of the rapeseed supplied to German oil mills was domestic.

The Union zur Förderung von Oel- und Proteinpflanzen e.V. (UFOP) has underlined the importance of and need for imports to utilize the capacities of the oil mills, which processed approximately 9.5 million tonnes of seed in 2021. The association is therefore watching the situation of conflict in Ukraine with concern, as the country is one of the most important suppliers to Germany, not only of rapeseed. Against this background and in view of the continued high level of producer prices, the UFOP has recommended that producers secure these prices in commodities futures and fully use the farms‘ potential for rapeseed production when sowing whilst taking into account the requirements of crop rotation.