Higher demand for rapeseed imports due to smaller EU harvest

The EU Commission significantly lowered expectations concerning the European 2024 rapeseed harvest at the end of last year, reducing its forecast to approximately 17.2 million tonnes.
Given the smaller crop and an expected rapeseed processing volume of about 23 million tonnes, this means that the EU will rely more on imports.
Most imports go to German oil mills, which have a processing capacity of approximately 10 million tonnes of rapeseed.
Whereas Ukraine was the most important rapeseed source in the first half of the crop year, Canada and Australia moved into focus towards the turn of the year.
Between the beginning of the 2024/25 crop year and 19 January 2025, EU rapeseed imports totalled 3.4 million tonnes, representing an increase of just over 5% over the previous year.
Accounting for 63% of EU imports, Ukraine remains the key country of origin, as in previous years, seeing a slight rise in deliveries from 2.1 million tonnes the previous year to 2.2 million tonnes.
The second wave of imports from Australia will increasingly move into focus in the second half of the crop year.
By mid-January, Australia had already placed 875,000 tonnes of rapeseed on the EU market.
According to research by Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft, this represents an around 19% rise on the previous year's reference period.
Accounting for almost 26% of EU rapeseed imports, Australia remains the second most important rapeseed supplier to the EU, followed by Canada with 144,000 tonnes. Canadian deliveries more than tripled compared to the previous year, if at a low level. Because Canadian farmers grow genetically modified varieties, the use of rapeseed oil derived from Canadian rapeseed is restricted in the EU.
Imports are therefore mainly used for biofuel production. In contrast, Serbia and Moldova supplied only a fraction of the previous year’s volume.