Rapeseed: Will the weather be on farmers’ side?
May 3, 2018 at 2:34 PM ,
Starry Night Ltd.
BULGARIA. The country is a relatively small regional producer of rapeseed: harvest 2017-18 accounted to 458,110 mt. The quality of the crop has usually not been an issue, and as a result, its output is swiftly bought out after harvest, as is mainly exported to EU countries. Depending on the oil content of the crop, prices could rise quite high on occasions. A case in point, after harvest ended within the Northeast region last year, rapeseed with oil content of 44.8% hit as high a price as 0.381 EUR/kg EXW a farmer’s storage facility. Such a state of favorable market affairs encouraged local farmers to strategically plan their cultivation initiatives and increase planted acreages, even if the rise is not a drastic one.
Harvest 2017-18 (01.07.2017 – 27.04.2018) units in MT |
|
Beginning availability |
25,000 |
Aggregate output |
458,110 |
Imports |
32,655 |
Domestic consumption |
56,000 |
oil & biodiesel production |
56,000 |
Exports to the world |
428,461 |
to EU markets |
389,965 |
to rest of the world |
38,496 |
Source: Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture
Rapeseed: Data shows more planted land. Yet, the weather will decide in the end
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, by the 26th of April 2018, planted rapeseed land stood at 185,213 ha, which on a yearly basis is by 9.2% higher, including fallen-through acreages of 540 ha. By the start of the harvesting season though, which is expected to happen in about a two-months’ time – provided weather conditions allowed it to begin since too much rains delated harvest 2017-18 – availability of rapeseed land could actually be lower. The reason is that farmers within the Southeast – the region that customarily harvest the highest rate of output – complained of earlier unfavorable weather conditions. In addition, the recent higher than normal temperatures for the season make farmers anxious about yield prospects. Anyhow, the meteorological forecast during the current month predicts periods of higher than normal temperatures, followed by days of intermittent showers, while in the third-ten days period of May, hailstorms are expected to fall.