Market report: OSR prices break through £300/t

Oilseed rape prices have jumped again, with global weather concerns raising fears over soya and rapeseed supplies.

Spot values have reached an average of £305.60/t ex-farm, depending on location. That was almost £8/t up on the week, and the first time prices had breached £300/t since July 2008.

Early frosts in Alberta and Saskatchewan were threatening oil content in Canada’s canola crop, only 9% of which had been harvested last week due to rain, according to a HGCA report. In addition, only 63% of the US soya bean crop was rated as good to excellent last week, down from 64% the previous week.

“And the weak EU and Eastern European sunflower harvest has resulted in concerns over sun oil supply; this is compounded by uncertainties over Black Sea exports.”

However, Australia’s production was likely to reach 2.3m tonnes, up from 1.9mt and the US and South America were still on course for record crops, said traders.

But EU rapeseed production was forecast lower, and UK rapeseed imports exceeded exports during the first month of the 2010/11 season, the HGCA added. A total of 9770t of rapeseed were exported in July 2010 (2471t in July 09), while imports were 16,084t (27,854t last year).