Despite 41% drop, Australia remains EU’s primary rapeseed supplier

According to data from the EU Commission, EU-27 rapeseed imports from non-EU countries during the 2025-’26 season fell well short of the previous year’s volume of 7.5 million metric tons, reaching 5.4 million tons.

The EU’s import demand declined mainly due to an increase in the EU harvest.

The Union zur Förderung von Oel- und Proteinpflanzen (UFOP) said it is hoping for a similarly good yield from the 2026 EU rapeseed harvest, despite the extreme weather conditions of recent weeks.

National-quota requirements resulting from the implementation of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) currently define feedstock demand.

This should primarily benefit producers in the EU.

EU rapeseed imports from non-EU countries declined sharply compared to the previous year.

The primary supplier countries are Australia and Ukraine.

Shipments from Australia declined approximately 41 percent to 2.1 million tons compared to the 2024-’25 season.

Deliveries from Ukraine dropped around 34 percent, falling to 1.6 million tons.

Imports from Canada also fell short of the previous year’s volume.

At 870,000 tons, the country’s exports to the EU remained significantly below the 1.1 million tons recorded the previous year.

Because Canadian farmers grow genetically modified varieties, however, the use of rapeseed oil derived from Canadian sources is restricted in the EU.

As a result, imports from Canada are mainly used for biofuel production.

The EU’s continued high level of import demand has prompted UFOP to call on rapeseed producers to fully utilize their farms’ potential for sustainable rapeseed cultivation when planning crop rotation for the 2027 harvest.

The UFOP pointed out that, following the recalculation, the “nomenclature of territorial units for statistics” (NUTS 2) default greenhouse-gas emission-saving values for rapeseed used in biofuel production are now significantly better.

The association has highlighted that German rapeseed grown on so-called mineral soils shows the best default values for greenhouse-gas emission saving in the EU, adding that this locational advantage should be taken into account in sourcing and marketing the feedstock.