EU Rapemeal Prices? Nein!
20/05/13 -- There are no rapemeal prices quoted the continent today due to the Whit Monday holiday, even though the French and German stock markets and MATIF grains are open for business.
To keep you entertained instead, here's the latest world rapeseed production forecasts from our little Germanic chums Oil World (they bombed our chippy, but we're all friends now etc):
World production is seen up 2.2% to a record 64.0 MMT in 2013, with EU output rising 3.1% to 19.9 MMT. Both those are close to the USDA's forecasts of 63.39 MMT and 20.0 MMT respectively.
In Europe they expect Germany to regain top spot (they're so bloody competitive aren't they?) in the EU production table with a crop of 5.5 MMT, up 14.6% on last year. France meanwhile will slip into second this year with a crop of 5.1 MMT, down 7.3% on 2012. Poland leapfrog the UK into third slot, with a crop of 2.2 MMT, up 15.8%.
Meanwhile the UK will somehow manage to produce a rapeseed crop of 1.9 MMT (rolls eyes), which would be "only" down 26.9% on last year.
I love the German sense of humour, don't you? In honour of it here's my favourite German joke: Why are there no aspirin in the jungle? Because it would not be commercially viable to attempt to sell pharmaceuticals in a largely unpopulated rainforest, especially when taking into consideration the lack of infrastructure and the logistical difficulties that would bring.
Elsewhere, Ukraine will produce a 2.0 MMT rapeseed crop this year, they say. That's up sharply, like over 50% sharp, on last season's 1.3 MMT.
Canada will weigh in with a crop of 14.5 MMT, up 4.3%, but Australia's output will slump 25% to 3.0 MMT.