Rapeseed: Meteorological conditions will influence yields for better or for worse
June 14, 2018 at 2:00 PM ,
Starry Night Ltd.
BULGARIA. Foreign demand for the crop has always been strong – exceptionally strong, indeed, and as a result, during the sowing campaign of last year, farmers allocated larger areas for the cultivation of the crop. For the upcoming harvesting campaign, farmers will be standing in front of 187,219 ha of available for harvest rapeseed fields, which on a yearly basis is by 13.30% more than those of last year, according to local authorities. The higher cultivated area with rapeseed might not lead to a higher national output, though!
Rapeseed: Will a larger cultivated area nationwide lead to a higher national output?
However, not all regions were favoured by auspicious weather conditions, and as a result, according to owners of rapeseed fields, this year’s outputs will differ, in places - quite substantially from those of last year’s. As a result, the current situation is a mosaic of different expectations, as owners of rapeseed land within the Northeast expect a strong harvest, while some of their counterparts within the Southeast forecast a weaker yield. Because different meteorological conditions have recently affected the regions throughout the country, some farmers are expected to enter fields in approximately a week’s time while others in the beginning of next month.
Harvest 2017-18 (01.07.2017 – 08.06.2018) units in MT |
|
Beginning availability |
25,000 |
Aggregate output |
478,987 |
Imports |
32,655 |
Domestic consumption |
74,800 |
oil & biodiesel production |
74,800 |
Exports to the world |
438,461 |
to EU markets |
394,965 |
to rest of the world |
43,496 |
Source: Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture
Once harvests throughout the country have begun, there is no doubt the crop will be swiftly bought out by intermediary market players. The active marketing season of rapeseed is the few months after harvest. And, since local quantities produced are relatively small on an annual basis, if compared to those of the big regional behemoths such as Ukraine, depending on the quantities of aggregate output collected – not discounting the quality of the crop at all – market players could well call the end of the season much earlier than usual.