The dry soils in France prevent agriculture from completing rape seed sowing and are expected to have a sowing area of 1.5 million hectares in France in 2019, around 150,000-250,000 hectares smaller than in the previous year.
Based on the French Ministry of Agriculture's estimate of 1.59 million hectares this year, Univia forecasts an area decline of between 9% and 16% for next year's harvest.
Sowing difficulties due to the summer drought and rising prices for alternative crops such as wheat are also likely to put a brake on rapeseed sowing in other European Union countries and could result in a smaller crop for the EU in 2019, as weather problems led to weaker yields this year.
France had the second-hottest summer since records began this year.
The conditions meant that rapeseed sowing could only be completed on 70-80% of the planned land. Originally it was expected that the sowing area for rape in France would remain stable or slightly below the previous year's level.
The rape futures on Euronext in Paris were able to recover this week, supported by the expectation of a smaller sown area and the rally of the oilseed markets.
