Ölsaaten News, 05/19/2023

Rapeseed prices were under selling pressure again this week. On Wednesday, the front month of August even slipped below the EUR 400 mark, but was able to recover above this mark on Ascension Day. The August date closed yesterday with a closing price of 403.50 euros/t. Since the beginning of the month, the contract has lost 40 euros per ton. Prices on the spot markets also came under pressure. Due to the public holiday, only a few sales are made this week in particular. Canola on the ICE in Winnipeg also gave way recently. The extension of the grain agreement for Ukraine caused a significant setback on Wednesday, from which rapeseed partially recovered yesterday, Thursday. With the start of today's trade, positive trends in rapeseed are also evident again. Updated estimates from the Ministry of Agriculture in France show that farmers there have planned and cultivated more oilseed acreage overall. Rapeseed and sunflowers are increasingly being grown at the expense of grain maize. With an area of 2.43 million hectares, the cultivation of oilseeds grew by 4.9 percent compared to the previous year.For Germany, the Federal Statistical Office announced a cultivation area for winter rapeseed of 1.16 million hectares this week, which corresponds to an increase of 7.6 percent compared to the previous year. Soybeans have started the trading day on a friendlier note. On a weekly basis, however, prices have fallen significantly. Last Friday the closing price of 1,390.00 US cents/bu was on the display board of the CBoT in the July contract; yesterday's closing bell was 1,333.25 US cents/bu. The significant increases in production compared to the previous year, which the USDA predicted in the May WASDE, weighed on prices. The International Grains Council also published yesterday a significant increase in production compared to the previous year. US seeding is also progressing well, while export sales are weak and disappointing. Currently, the price competition from Brazil is very strong. The bumper harvest causes export prices to fall and an even larger harvest is forecast for Brazil next year. Weak economic data from China have also dampened hopes that demand from the Middle Kingdom will soon pick up.Crude oil prices were also under pressure and thus did not give vegetable oils any supportive signals. European oilseed imports continue to show significantly increased rapeseed imports. Here Australia is again the largest supplier for Europe. Sunflower imports have also increased significantly by 252 percent compared to the previous year. Sunflower meal is also increasingly being imported into the EU-27. Soybeans and soybean meal imports, on the other hand, have declined. This trend has been going on for several years and is also due to lower pig numbers in the European Union.