Global rapeseed supply remains tense

The USDA expects increases in rapeseed harvests for the most important rapeseed-producing countries in the 2021-’22 marketing year. Nevertheless, global supply remains tight.

According to an initial USDA assessment, the supply situation in the global rapeseed market will likely remain tense in the 2021-’22 marketing year. Rapeseed output is anticipated to increase 2.5 percent to 73.2 million metric tons. Global rapeseed consumption, however, is expected to rise somewhat at the same time, by 0.5 percent to 73.5 million tons.

The expectations for harvest increase in the 2021-’22 season are mainly based on increases in Canada and the EU-27. The USDA estimates rapeseed output in Canada at around 20.5 million tons, up 1.5 million tons from the previous year. The rapeseed crop in the EU-27 is estimated at 16.6 million tons, which would be up 0.4 million tons on 2020. Globally, Ukraine is a comparatively small producer of rapeseed, but with the harvest expected to amount to approximately 3 million tons, the country is a major supplier to the EU-27.

Agrarmarkt Informations-GmbH presumes that the level of rapeseed output and rapeseed availability for export in Canada and Ukraine will be of key importance for the EU-27 to supplement its own production in the 2021-’22 season. Eventually, EU rapeseed supply could be slightly more adequate than it is in the 2020-’21 marketing year because of the harvest increases in the EU and presumably larger import potential from Ukraine and Canada. The Union zur Förderung von Oel- und Proteinpflanzen (UFOP) has pointed out that an expansion in area planted to rapeseed in the autumn of 2021 as a consequence of currently attractive producer prices could go a long way towards improving and safeguarding supply.