Dry soil after record-breaking European summer heatwaves means farmers have been unable to plant all the rapeseed they wished, experts have said.
The ground may have been too dry for sowings in parts of the top four producers Germany, France, Britain and Poland. High grain prices after the poor European Union crop this summer also made some farmers turn to cereals from rapeseed, Europe’s main oilseed for edible oil and biodiesel production.
"We anticipate a fall in the rapeseed area, firstly because margins are less attractive than last year given the rise in prices of winter cereals, and also because weather conditions are dry all over the EU, from the south to the north," said Hemeline Macret, of French analysts Strategie Grains.
