France remains primary EU-27 rapeseed producer

Both France and Germany are expected to harvest more rapeseed in 2023 than a year earlier. The same applies to Lithuania and Hungary. The biggest rapeseed-production increase is expected in Romania.

Due to the mild temperatures and higher-than-average precipitation amounts, rapeseed crops on German fields look very good, according to UFOP.

According to recent information, the EU Commission assumes the 2023 German rapeseed harvest to reach 4.5 million metric tons. This would translate to a 232,000-ton increase on the previous year.

Following abundant rainfall, however, soils cannot be driven over in some areas. As a consequence, fieldwork is delayed.

France is also seen to harvest less rapeseed than a year earlier, just under 4.6 million tons, but France is still set to remain No. 1 of the top EU rapeseed producers for now.

The biggest increase is expected in Romania.

According to information published by the EU Commission, the country’s rapeseed harvest is set to grow to around 1.6 million tons in 2023. This would be up a full 33 percent on the drought year 2022 and the largest amount in six years.

The Czech Republic, Lithuania and Hungary are also forecast to bring in larger rapeseed harvests.

By contrast, Poland, the EU’s third-most important rapeseed producer, is expected to see a decline of 8 percent to 3.4 million tons on the previous year.

According to investigations conducted by Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (mbH), Denmark is also likely to bring in a smaller harvest.

The projected drop in rapeseed production in Poland and Denmark can be more than offset by the expected increases in France, Germany and Romania.

More specifically, the Commission has forecast an EU rapeseed crop of 20 million tons, which would not only be 464,000 tons higher than in 2022 but also the second-largest output ever only to be topped by the 2014 harvest of 21.8 million tons.