November 14, 2012

 

Germany's 2013 rapeseed sown acreage up 9.1% on-year

 

 

For the 2013 harvest, Germany's winter rapeseed sown area has been increased by 9.1% on-year to 1.419 million hectares.

 

Highly favourable sowing conditions in the autumn drilling period and strong demand for rapeseed have meant that farmers increased sowings, the German oilseeds industry association UFOP said at an event at the Eurotier agricultural trade fair.

 

The association's estimate is traditionally regarded as a key early forecast of Germany's upcoming rapeseed crop. German rapeseed plants are currently in a good to very good state of development, the association said. This has created the initial conditions for a good 2013 rapeseed harvest in Germany, said association chairman Klaus Kliem.

 

Germany, in most years, is EU's largest or second-largest rapeseed producer; Europe's most important oilseed for food use and a key feedstock for biodiesel production.

 

Germany harvested five million tonnes of rapeseed in 2012, up from 3.8 million tonnes in 2011. However, sowings for 2012 harvest had been reduced by repeated rains while Germany had in summer 2011 suffered a major rapeseed crop failure.

 

UFOP said attractive rapeseed prices compared to wheat and barley were a major reason for the increased area. EU rapeseed prices touched all-time highs in July and again in September because of fears about drought damage to crops in the US and Black Sea region, encouraging farmers when making decisions about sowings for their 2013 harvest.

 

Some 31% of German farmers contacted had decided to sell their 2013 rapeseed crop in advance, up from 27% last year, UFOP said.

 

About 75% of Germany's rapeseed crop is used for biodiesel feedstock, the remaining 25% as food. The EU Commission announced a major policy shift in September, saying it had planned to limit food crop-based biofuels to 5% of consumption after criticism that biofuel output has been responsible for rising global food prices.

 

Biofuel producers said that could devastate their business and bring an end to the production of biodiesel from rapeseed in Europe. Kliem said Germany may have to turn to exports to replace the lost biodiesel market if the EU plans are introduced.

 

This would put Germany in competition against rival oilseeds exports such as soy from the US, Brazil and Argentina along with rapeseed from rival exporters such as Ukraine. Germany has in recent years been a rapeseed importer, partly because of high demand for biodiesel.

 

"With growing populations around the world, there is strongly growing world-wide demand for vegetable oils and oilmeals. We will have to look to other markets to sell our rapeseed. I am confident we can achieve this and I do not think that the EU plans will cause a significant reduction in German rapeseed cultivation. Greater efforts would have to be made to promote sales of German rapeseed, rapeseed oil and the animal feed rapeseed meal abroad", Kliem said.

 

"German rapeseed is already well placed to win export business because of our high quality. Our rapeseed is also free from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) which would also be an important selling point in many markets," he said.

 

"There is a strong demand for GMO-free products in the US, I can well imagine German GMO-free rapeseed oil finding good market in the US."

 

UFOP deputy chairman Dietmar Brauer said about half of Europe's vegetable oil requirements were currently imported, which also created great potential for import substitution. UFOP will continue to lobby the EU to change its proposals, especially to give special recognition to the needs of crop rotation when calculating indirect land use changed caused by biodiesel production.