Rapeseed Harvesting

19/07/11 -- There are some widely mixed reports coming in from across Europe with regards to the rapeseed harvest. Better than expected yields are being reported in France, which may see them harvest a crop of around 4.6 MMT this year, a drop of around 4% on last season but still a considerable improvement on what many were forecasting a couple of months ago.

The Germans haven't been quite so fortunate, output here is expected to be in the region of 4.3-4.5 MMT, some 20-25% lower than last year as spring rains arrived a little too late to help much of the crop.

In Romania overall production is also expected to be down on last year. My Romanian correspondent reported last week: "A hot spell of weather the last few days with high temps mixed with some thunderstorms meant we finally started rape on Monday. Yields are an encouraging for us 3.1 tonne/ha which is 0.6 tonne up on budget. We are in not our best rape but we also have some lower yielding stuff to do. Progress is slow but steady and we have completed almost 100ha of 320ha we have ready. Only problem appears to be an excess of late growing cleavers which is keeping the riddles and cleaner very busy. The rest is still a few days off yet. Reports from the south of Romania talk about rape at 1.7 tonnes per ha. We are 2-3 weeks off wheat but they are running on this in the west."

Overall EU-27 production is seen falling around 2 MMT on last season, which means t hat we will have to rely on imports again for 2011/12. Unfortunately output from our cheap and cheerful neighbour Ukraine is also seen falling this year as heavy June rains were thought to have caused significant crop losses.

Europe's 2 MMT shortfall is however expected to largely be made up for on a global scale by sharp increases in output from Canada and Australia. Canadian production is expected to rise to anywhere between 12.6 MMT and 13.4 MMT in 2011, depending on who's estimate you fancy.

Australia is now expecting a record crop of just under 2.6 MMT in 2011, much of which will be exported to Europe, according to yesterday's estimate from the Australian Oilseeds Federation.

Here's a summary of what is expected from where on the rapeseed front in 2011/12:
































































































EU-27  
2010/11
2011/12
France
4.80
4.60
Germany
5.70
4.40
UK
2.20
2.30
Czech Rep
1.05
1.07
Poland
2.10
1.80
Romania
1.00
0.80
Others
3.60
3.43
Total EU-27 
20.45
18.40
Rest of the
World
Canada
11.80
13.00
China
13.00
12.80
India
7.00
7.00
Australia
2.15
2.59
Ukraine
1.50
1.40
Others
3.05
3.25
Total Rest of the World
38.50
40.04
   
Total World
58.95
58.44