EU rapeseed area at record high

The prospect of a larger harvest is putting pressure on the prices.
Speculations on smaller yields, however, raised prices again to normal level,
German statistical bureau ZMP said.

In the EU-27 a harvest area of 6.2 million
hectares is estimated, which is about one million more hectares that previous
crop year.

The two main countries for rapeseed remain Germany and France
with 1.54 million hectares and 1.56 million hectares respectively. Poland is
third with 0.71 million hectares and the United Kingdom ranks fourth with 0.65
million hectares.

In the “old” EU countries the areas have already been
excessively planted with rapeseed. This is not the case in the “new” countries,
where there is a lot of potential.

Here Romania shows remarkable growth.
In 2007 the area has increased with 330.000 hectares, which is triple compared
to the 2006 area.

More important however is the planting of sunflowers in
Romania with almost one million hectares, which makes the country the largest
grower of sunflowers in the EU.

High harvest
When counting on
an average yield the EU-27 will be able to harvest almost 19 million tonnes of
rapeseed. Highest volumes will be achieved in Germany (5.8 mt) and France (5.15
mt). Harvest in Romania will be lower (600,000 t) due to lower yield.

The
expected higher 2007 harvest and the high volume of rapeseed still in storage
has put pressure on the price, but the draught in Europe probably will lower
harvest volumes and prices will stabilise again on normal
levels.