UFOP: Germany’s proposed reduction of cap on crop biofuels threatens feed protein supply

The decline in rapeseed-meal exports has prompted the Union zur Förderung von Oel- und Proteinpflanzen e.V. (UFOP) to strongly oppose the proposed reduction of the cap on biofuels from cultivated biomass as outlined in the German Federal Ministry for the Environment’s draft bill to amend the greenhouse-gas (GHG) quota legislation.  

The legislation is intended to implement the revised Renewable Energy Directive (Red III) at the national level and is under enormous time pressure because Germany has already allowed the directive’s implementation deadline to lapse. 

The association has once again emphasized that the biodiesel market is by far the most important outlet for German and European rapeseed producers, as well as for German rapeseed mills, which have a combined processing capacity of approximately 10 million metric tons of seed.  

The production of biofuels and the availability of domestic rapeseed meal are mutually dependent.  

The UFOP has repeatedly pointed out this relationship as a prime example of an integrated bioeconomy.  

The association has therefore called on Alois Rainer, the German minister of agriculture, to push for raising the cap to 5.3 percent during the ongoing interdepartmental coordination on the GHG quota legislation.  

The increase would help compensate for the decline in overall energy demand in the transport sector resulting from the reintroduction of tax incentives for electromobility.  

The association has also emphasized that biofuels make a significant contribution towards climate-change mitigation—without placing a burden on the federal budget, since they are subject to full taxation. 

According to data from the German Federal Statistical Office, Germany exported just over 1.4 million tons of rapeseed meal from July 2024 to April 2025.  

This was down 9 percent on the same period a year earlier.  

Nearly all of this volume (around 1.3 tons) was delivered to EU member states.  

The largest share, 589,000 tons, went to the Netherlands, representing a decrease of almost 17 percent compared to the same period the previous year.  

Rapeseed meal deliveries to Sweden dropped 2 percent. 

In contrast, exports to Denmark, Finland and France showed a positive trend.  

Denmark, Germany’s second-largest trading partner for rapeseed meal, ramped up its imports 2 percent to 184,000 tons.  

Exports to France saw a remarkable rise.  

Due to a smaller domestic harvest, France strongly relied on imports, which climbed around 70 percent year-on-year to nearly 99,000 tons.  

Outside the EU, Switzerland remained the most important export destination, followed by the U.K.