Ukrainian rapeseed producers hold off on sales in 2021/22 season: opinion
Agricultural producers in Ukraine definitely learned from last season's market situation, and today they are holding off on rapeseed sales. During the first two months of the new rapeseed season, the export of the crop decreased to 30%, says the CEO of UkrAgroConsult Sergei Feofilov.
"The share of rapeseed export supply in previous seasons was 40-45%. Farmers have become more cautious, we regularly receive requests about the rapeseed market situation in Canada, Australia, etc. We do not exclude that soon requests for support on hedging in the key foreign markets will follow," adds Sergei Feofilov.
Rapeseed and products export from Ukraine in July-Aug, thou. t
| Commodity | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | YoY |
| Rapeseed | 1036 | 793 | (25.4%) |
| Rapeseed oil | 40.1 | 42 | 4.7% |
| Rapeseed meal | 46.7 | 64.7 | 38.5% |
He marks that the previous rapeseed season 2020/21 in Ukraine was unproductive. Firstly, due to unfavourable weather conditions. Secondly, the area under the crop decreased. Thus, the production of rapeseed, its products, and exports decreased.
"Price formation was also confusing. Despite the fact that at the beginning of the season rapeseed prices were high compared to sunflower and soybeans, in the mid-season, the price collapsed and the crop appeared the cheapest. The thing is that rapeseed is sold and exported mainly under forward contracts," comments the expert.
READ MORE: How Germans Introduced Ukraine to Rapeseed. An Interview with Michael Rjasanowski
As per UkrAgroConsult estimate, 80% of Ukrainian rapeseed harvested in 2020 was sold prior to the rise in rapeseed prices. That is, as Sergei Feofilov says, rapeseed stocks were scarce and there was practically no supply. During the period of a sharp rise in sunflower and soybean prices, rapeseed prices remained stable.
In contrast to Ukraine, prices for all oilseeds were rising simultaneously on the Russian and European markets. The expert assumes that if Ukrainian farmers did not push on selling rapeseed, they would have received a good premium to the price last season.
In the crop year 2021, rapeseed production in Ukraine made up 2.8 mln t on 1.01 mln ha, using the average yield of 2.79 t/ha. In 2020, this oilseed crop production was completed at 2.55 mln t on 1.11 mln ha, the average yield was 2.29 t/ha.
For the country's next rapeseed crop, 775 thou. ha was sown of the planned 1.03 mln ha as of 13 Sept.