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Rapeseed: Meteorological conditions will influence yields for better or for worse

June 14, 2018 at 2:00 PM , Starry Night Ltd.
Green is still the predominant colour in some fields.
Green is still the predominant colour in some fields.
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SOFIA. In regions, farmers will enter fields by the end of the month. Weather conditions before harvest are the key to success.

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.

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