OILSEED RAPE PROSPECTS
Is the price right for an O Economics might trump agronomics when it comes to planting oilseed rape this year as strong prices and good prospects tempt growers back to the crop. Cedric Porter reports.
T
he British countryside has become a lot less yellow over the last few years. In 2012, UK farmers harvested more than 750,000 hectares of oilseed rape. This harvest they will probably cut a crop of not much more than 300,000ha.
6 AF OSR p6 7 8 Cedric TR MC RM.indd 2
The loss of neonicotinoid seed treatments has hit yields hard, with many growers reluctantly giving the crop up despite a strengthening market. However, this year might be the time when some decide the economic gains from the crop are greater than possible agronomic losses.
Old crop delivered prices are above £440/tonne (April 26, 2021) and new crop prices are opening the season at above £400/t for the first time ever. Even August 2022 prices on the French Matif exchange are the equivalent of more than £350/t. Condition The 2021 crop looks to be in better condition than its 2020 equivalent. At the end of March, AHDB estimated 84% of the national winter OSR crop was in excellent (12%), good (29%) or fair (43%) condition. That
contrasted with 37% in either poor or very poor condition at the same point in the 2019/20 growing season. The crop will have been affected by the dry spring, but it appears to be in better condition to weather any dryness than last year’s crop was. The good news for British growers is the market is not just supported by tight UK supply, but a bullish global market. Vegetable oil prices have increased by nearly 90% over the last year, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s price index,
JUNE 2021 06/05/2021 14:09
