EU rapeseed area expected to rise in 2026

USDA experts expect an expansion in the rapeseed area in the European Union for the 2026 harvest.
Attractive producer prices for rapeseed in the autumn of 2025 encouraged farmers to expand the area under cultivation.
In its recently published initial outlook, the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), based in Vienna, estimated the EU rapeseed area for the 2026 harvest at an anticipated 6.3 million hectares. This represents an expansion of approximately 2.7 per cent compared with the previous year.
Alongside attractive contract prices at the time of sowing, another factor driving this development is the agronomic significance of rapeseed as a leaf crop that is essential in cereal-dominated crop rotations and that promotes biodiversity.
In some regions in Germany, flowering rapeseed fields are currently a typical sight in the countryside, reflecting the importance of this crop in a particularly striking way.
These yellow areas are not only a defining feature of the landscape but also reflect a versatile form of land use that combines food production, energy generation and agriculture.
Based on expected average yields, the FAS projects the 2026 EU harvest at 20.4 million tonnes, slightly below the previous year's figure of 20.5 million tonnes.  France, Germany, Poland and Romania together account for around three quarters of total EU production. The FAS expects the rapeseed area to increase in all these countries. The International Grains Council (IGC) recently published a slightly more cautious outlook, expecting the rapeseed area to remain stable at around 6.1 million hectares.