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Rapeseed: Excess regional supply impacts export activities

October 5, 2017 at 1:21 PM , Starry Night Ltd.
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SOFIA. Drastic shifts in exports on a weekly basis should not mislead interested outsiders in the intricacies of the local market; the crop has already been sold out to reselling market parties. Planting of Winter rapeseed continues.

BULGARIA. Sowing of Winter rapeseed is approaching its end. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, by the end of September 2017, farmers sowed 82,392 ha of the crop. The forecasted rains in the end of the week, however, most probably will prolong planting activities.

Rapeseed: Difficult to find rapeseed on the local market

Rapeseed is the only locally grown crop with the highest relative export rate on a yearly basis among the other locally cultivated grains such as wheat, barley and corn. Since farmers will not become investors in building rapeseed refining factories, which will allow them to realize higher margins, the trend will not change soon.

Local market players have bought out available quantities of rapeseed and time their sales, according to regional market forces. However, on a weekly basis, exports have been quite unpredictable and a stable tracing trend is impossible to draw. The main export market for locally cultivated rapeseed has always been EU countries, but this season, EU buyers have confidently turned towards Ukrainian rapeseed, as the country has realized a bumper output.

A case in point, by the end of the month, Bulgarian exporters shipped out 292,561 mt of the crop while by the end of September 2016, exported volumes abroad reached 453,601 mt, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Harvest 2017-18

(01.07.2017 - 29.09.2017)

Carry over

25,000 mt

Domestic output

459,002 mt

Domestic consumption

20,800 mt

Exports to the world

292,561 mt

 

 

 

 

 

Source: Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture

 

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