France is boosting imports of biodiesel feedstock rapeseed as the country's harvest continues to disappoint. But although prices for rapeseed have risen over the last four months they are yet to come close to the record levels of 2012-13, with the oilseed being displaced by alternative feedstock.
France imported 692,000t of rapeseed between July and September, the second-highest level on record, behind the same period in 2010, when it imported 817,000t, according to data from the country's agriculture ministry statistics service (Agreste). Shipments to France are being boosted by to the weak yield from the country's harvest. The French rapeseed harvest stood at 3.5mn t between July 2013 and January 2014, Agreste said. This is down by 25pc from the 4.7mn t gathered in the same period a year earlier and comes as the result of poor growing conditions in late 2012 and early 2013.
This is the lowest harvest for the July-January period since the 2004-05 growing season, when 3.2mn t were gathered, before the EU mandate on biofuel production spurred increased demand for rapeseed.
With the rapeseed harvest in France likely to be around 4mn t over the season, compared with 5.3mn t in 2012-13, the country’s dominant seed crusher and Europe's largest biodiesel producer, Sofiproteol, could end up taking more than half of French rapeseed output to produce biodiesel, highlighting its strong influence on the future of the country's crop. The company said it takes around 1.4t of rapeseed to produce 1t (7.46 bl) of biodiesel, with the firm saying 75pc of its production is from French rapeseed. With production of 2.2mn t (45,000 b/d) of biodiesel in 2013, this means that, at its current level of output, the company has used about 2.3mn t of France's rapeseed to produce biodiesel, around 55pc of the country's production.
French rapeseed prices in February were the highest since June. But prices are not getting close to the record highs in 2012 and 2013, despite the 2013-14 harvest being expected to come in almost a quarter lower than a year earlier. Rapeseed prices at the northern inland port of Rouen stood at €382.33/t fob in February, according to Agreste's latest data. This is down by 18pc from €469.50/t in the same month a year earlier. It is also the lowest price in the month since February 2010, when rapeseed cost €288.25/t.
Continued lower prices for rapeseed compared with the last three years are the result of similar patterns for soya. Lower soya prices have meant that biodiesel refiners have been able to substitute rapeseed with little inconvenience.
The weaker harvest in France in the current season has not deterred farmers from replanting rapeseed. After the country had seen planted surfaces for rapeseed cut in the 2012-13 harvest — to 1.43mn hectares from 1.6mn hectares — it appears the 2013-14 harvest will see a rebound in planted acreages. Initial indications from Agreste say France's farmers will cultivate an extra 100,000 hectares of rapeseed in the 2013-14 harvest, giving a total of 1.53mn hectares, up by 7pc.
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