Demand for rapeseed imports declined due to improved supply in EU

According to European Commission estimates, the rapeseed harvest in the EU-27 totalled around 20.16 million tonnes in 2025.

This represents a significant increase in supply compared with the previous year’s substandard output of 16.77 million tonnes.

With rapeseed processing volumes expected to reach around 24.68 million tonnes, this also makes the EU less dependent on imports.

Cumulative imports into the EU-27 in the first half of the 2025/26 crop year amounted to approximately 1.85 million tonnes, representing a decline of nearly 43 per cent compared with the previous year’s level of 3.23 million tonnes.

Ukraine remains the leading supplier country, with just over 1.06 million tonnes delivered to date and a 57 per cent share of imports. Nevertheless, shipments from the country remain well below the previous year’s volume of 2.02 million tonnes.

The second wave of imports from Australia is expected to come increasingly into focus later in the season. By January, Australia had placed 249,869 tonnes of rapeseed on the EU market, ranking second among the major countries of origin with a share of just under 14 per cent, but trailing well behind Ukraine. According to investigations conducted by Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (mbH), deliveries remained approximately 71 per cent below the level recorded in the reference period.

Canada continued to lose market share. The country delivered 140,915 tonnes of rapeseed to date, compared with 161,347 tonnes in the previous year.

Because Canadian farmers grow genetically modified varieties, the use of rapeseed oil derived from Canadian rapeseed is restricted in the EU. As a result, imports from Canada are primarily used for biofuel production.

By contrast, Moldova and Serbia significantly increased their deliveries compared with the first half of the 2024/25 crop year, supplying 247,357 tonnes (previous year: 85,611 tonnes) and 114,171 tonnes (previous year: 44,501 tonnes), respectively. Some of the rapeseed imports declared as Moldovan are likely to be of Ukrainian origin, reflecting changes in transit and trade routes.