German rapeseed meal exports on the decline

Germany exported a total of just over 1.5 million tonnes of rapeseed meal from July 2022 to May 2023. This was down about 4 per cent on the same period a year earlier. According to Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (mbH), this was the smallest quantity imported in four years. German rapeseed meal is mainly delivered to EU member states. They received round 1.3 million tonnes in the period stated. The largest share, 685,000 tonnes, went to the Netherlands. This means that the volume decreased just over 5 per cent on the same period a year earlier. Denmark, the second largest trading partner in the rapeseed meal business, also reduced its imports from Germany 5 per cent, to 182,000 tonnes. Deliveries to France dropped more than one third, whereas those to Spain plummeted as much as 52 per cent. Due to larger domestic rapeseed harvests, both countries had less demand for meal deliveries from abroad.

On the other hand, according to information published by the German Federal Statistical Office, deliveries to Sweden showed an increase of almost one third. Switzerland was once more the most important recipient outside the European Community, boosting its imports just less than 12 per cent to a record of 78,000 tonnes.

The Union zur Förderung von Oel- und Proteinpflanzen e. V. (UFOP) has highlighted the amounts of rapeseed meal generated in the processing chain of rapeseed oil-based biodiesel. The association holds that rapeseed meal is by far the most important source of protein for animal feed, but in future potentially also the human diet. The UFOP has emphasised that the importance of this sector for value creation and climate change mitigation can be deduced from Germany’s rapeseed processing capacity of more than 9 million tonnes and biodiesel production capacity of more than 4 million tonnes.

The UFOP has therefore expressly welcomed the decision taken by the Conference of the German Ministers of Economics held on 21/22 June 2023, unanimously calling on the German government not to pursue the planned annual reduction of the cap on biofuels from cultivated biomass. The UFOP has pointed out that the war has once again revealed the dependence of Germany as an industrial location on imports of fossil energy sources. The suitability of rapeseed oil for a large variety of uses in human nutrition, for energy-related uses and, in the future, possibly increased material use in an integrated bioeconomy is a prerequisite to secure supply of protein from German or European production.