EU rapeseed-meal imports up 16% in 1st 8 months of current marketing year

In view of the attractive price level, imports of rapeseed meal to the European Union rose around 16 percent in the first eight months of the running marketing year.

Imports from Russia increased especially sharply.

EU-27 processing of rapeseed into rapeseed meal cannot fully cover intracommunity demand.

The union has always closed this gap with imports from non-EU countries.

In the first eight months of the running marketing year, the EU-27 received around 681,500 metric tons of rapeseed meal, which was 95,600 tons more than in the same period a year earlier.

At 281,830 tons, imports from Russia accounted for the largest share—over 41 percent of total imports.

Imports from Russia increased around 11 percent from the year-earlier period.

This is due to the attractive price level of Russian batches.

Belarus also contributed 208,200 tons, ranking the second-most important country of origin of EU rapeseed-meal imports.

This has also had a significant impact on prices in Germany in the past weeks, after the European Commission considered increasing import duties on oilseeds and their byproducts originating from Russia and Belarus.

The proposed increase is intended to prevent the EU market from destabilizing, for example due to a rapid increase in low-priced Russian imports.

At the same time, there was a remarkable increase in EU imports from Ukraine.

At 143,500 tons, the country contributed more than double the previous year’s volume in the first eight months of the running season, moving up to the third-most important country of origin, followed by the U.K. and Serbia.

Investigations conducted by Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (mbH) suggest that most EU rapeseed-meal imports go to Lithuania and Spain, with France also receiving substantial supplies.

The Union zur Förderung von Oel- und Proteinpflanzen e. V. (UFOP) considers the reason for the increased demand for imports to be that rapeseed meal has replaced soybean meal in feeding rations in Germany and other member states, particularly in dairy farming.

Rapeseed protein, which is lower priced than soybean meal, replaces soybean imports from overseas without compromising performance, UFOP stated.

With approximately 6 million hectares of land under rapeseed cultivation in the EU-27, the potential for growing rapeseed is not fully exploited.

Referring to UFOP’s “10+10” strategy, the association has emphasized that large-grained pulses could also go a long way towards significantly reducing the necessity to import feed protein.

UFOP has therefore highlighted the need for action to present a holistic, comprehensive EU protein strategy that also acknowledges the contribution these crops can make to the expansion of crop rotations and climate-change mitigation.