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Rapeseed: Will the weather be on farmers’ side?

May 3, 2018 at 2:34 PM , Starry Night Ltd.
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SOFIA. Encouraged by the success of the current season, farmers planted more for the upcoming one. Yet, the weather will have the final word.

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.

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