Ölsaaten News, 04/14/2023

While soybeans were up overall this week, rapeseed went south in the week after Easter. While last Thursday the Euronext/Matif price list was still 461.50 euros/t in the front month of May, it was still 443.00 euros at the closing bell yesterday. With the opening of today's trading day, the front month fell below the mark of 440 euros/t shortly after the start of trading. As a result, prices on the local cash markets also fell with quiet sales. On the news side, however, there is little news when it comes to rap. France's Ministry of Agriculture increased its forecast for the area under cultivation there to 1.35 million hectares on Wednesday. This corresponds to an increase of 9.3 percent compared to the previous year and is 11 percent higher than the average of the last five years. In its WASDE on Tuesday, the USDA corrected global rapeseed production for the current marketing year upwards. The global harvest is therefore likely to be 87 million tons, while the five-year average is 73.7 million tons. Harvests in Europe, Australia and Canada, but also in Bangladesh and India have led to the increase. EU imports remain at a high level.Up to the current calendar week, 1.61 million tonnes more rapeseed were imported into the European Union than in the previous year. The import counter is now at 6.36 million tons. Significantly more sunflowers and more sunflower meal were also imported in this marketing year. More tonnages of rapeseed meal were also imported than in the previous year. The long-term trend of lower soybean imports is also reflected in the EU Commission's customs import statistics. Soybean meal was also imported slightly less than in the previous year. The rapeseed stocks in this country are developing predominantly to the satisfaction of the producers. In many regions, the second nitrogen application is due soon. Farmers will benefit from the significant drop in fertilizer prices if they have not stocked up sufficiently by autumn 2022. The soybean market was mainly under the impression of the WASDE numbers this week. After the figures were published, beans but also soybean meal and soybean oil went up. US inventories and US production were not adjusted, but as expected, the crop volume for Argentina was significantly reduced. The USDA only expects a quantity of 27 million tons and thus 6 million tons less than in the March WASDE.The grain exchanges in Argentina have also further reduced their forecasts. The grain exchange in Rosario corrected its forecast yesterday by a very significant 4 million tons to 23 million tons. The USDa raised the harvest forecast for Brazil by 1 million tons to 154 million tons. Brazil's agricultural agency Conab estimated production at 153.6 million tons yesterday, up 1 million tons from the last Conab estimate. Because of the good harvest and the bad harvest in Argentina, the Brazilian export association expects increasing export volumes in the South American country. Meanwhile, the soy dollar introduced by the government in Buenos Aires does not appear to be boosting the country's soy sales. The interest, it is said, is extremely low. Friendly signals are coming from the US export front. The weekly export bookings have increased again, but are still below the average of last week and the previous year. The crude oil markets are largely maintaining their elevated price level. However, vegetable oils such as soybean oil and palm oil have recently had to undergo significant corrections.