May 31, 2012

English farmers profit from rapeseed oil's surging prices

Farmers across England's Anglia region are taking advantage from surging prices of rapeseed oil.

Due to some of the shortages throughout the world of rapeseed, the price has increased quite a lot over the last couple of years which makes it a more profitable crop to grow. Harsh winter frosts have destroyed it in other European countries this year - but in Britain, it's blooming.

With soaring prices, farmers are turning over more of their fields to the crop - transforming our region into a sea of yellow. Rapeseed covers 3.5% of the countryside and in some counties like Bedfordshire its a tenth.

It's been cultivated throughout the world for at least four thousand years but only in the 13th century was it grown commercially to produce lamp oil. Now it's used for producing cooking oils, margarine and processed food but a large proportion is also used for making lubricants, adhesives, cosmetics and gardening products.

Production has doubled in the past 10 years, rising from just over a million tonnes to more than 2.2 million tonnes, but not everyone's so mellow about these fields of yellow. Some people believe it sets off their hayfever but, in actual fact, the heavy pollen makes it less likely to trigger allergies than other plants in the countryside.