Brisk foreign trade in German rapeseed

German farmers harvested more rapeseed in 2025 than in 2024.

Despite the larger domestic supply, rapeseed imports remained plentiful in the first half of the 2025-’26 season.

Exports also exceeded the previous year’s volume.

According to data from the German Federal Statistical Office, Germany imported approximately 3.1 million metric tons of rapeseed in the first half of the 2025-’26 crop year, representing a 4 percent increase compared to the previous year.

Delivering 873,400 tons, Romania replaced Ukraine as the leading supplier to Germany.

By comparison, between July and December 2024, Romania delivered only 229,600 tons to the German market.

The increase in imports was likely due to the significantly larger harvest, as Romania more than doubled its production compared to the previous year, reaching a new record high.

It remains open to debate, however, to what extent the country acted as transit route for Ukrainian rapeseed.

According to data from the German Federal Statistical Office, Ukraine delivered roughly 752,500 tons, 39 percent less than in the same period of the previous year.

A possible reason for the decline in rapeseed imports could be Ukraine’s export duties on rapeseed, soybean and sunflowers.

These duties recently caused disruptions in European trade in these commodities.

France, Europe’s third most important supplier, supplied 477,100 tons to the German market, according to research by Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (mbH).

This translates to an increase of roughly 64 percent.

The Netherlands, a central hub in world trade, more than doubled its volume.

Whereas Canada did not deliver any significant volumes over the past two years, imports of Canadian rapeseed rose to 99,800 tons in the first half of the 2025-’26 season (July to December 2025).

By contrast, Germany’s rapeseed imports from Poland, Australia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Belgium declined.

Germany is the largest net importer within the EU so exports were relatively small, despite the larger harvest.

In the first six months of the current season, Germany exported only around 64,100 tons of rapeseed, which was up 87 percent on the same period last year.

Most German rapeseed exports go to other EU member states, with Poland (around 34,600 tons), the Netherlands (7,300 tons) and France (5,200 tons) as the primary destinations.