German rapeseed-meal exports up 26% on previous year

German rapeseed-meal exports have exceeded the previous year’s volume significantly.

Main buyers such as Denmark, the Netherlands and Finland raised their imports considerably, whereas Sweden ordered less.

From July 2023 to April 2024, Germany exported a total of just less than 1.7 million metric tons of rapeseed meal.

This was up about 26 percent on the same period a year earlier.

According to Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (mbH), this is the largest quantity exported in three years.

German rapeseed meal is primarily delivered to EU member states, which received round 1.5 million tons in the period stated.

The Netherlands imported the largest quantity at 755,000 tons, representing an increase of 24 percent.

Denmark, the second-largest trading partner, raised its imports from Germany 7 percent to 184,000 tons.

Deliveries to Finland are noteworthy as they doubled from just under 91,000 tons during last year’s period to 175,000 tons.

Spain and France also sourced more rapeseed meal from Germany.

In contrast, deliveries to Sweden dropped 14 percent to 88,000 tons, according to information published by the German Federal Statistical Office.

Switzerland remained the most important recipient outside the European Community, boosting its imports just less than 23 percent to a record 85,000 tons.

The Union zur Förderung von Oel- und Proteinpflanzen e. V. (UFOP) has highlighted the significant amounts of rapeseed meal generated in the processing chain of rapeseed oil-based biodiesel.

In Germany, rapeseed meal is by far the most important source of protein for animal feed and, in the future, potentially also for the human diet.

The German biodiesel industry produced approximately 3.7 million tons of biodiesel in 2023, of which 52.3 percent was based on rapeseed oil.

Accordingly, approximately 1.92 million tons of rapeseed oil were used in biodiesel production, which in turn were obtained from approximately 4.8 million tons of rapeseed.

Rapeseed processing also generated approximately 2.9 million tons of rapeseed meal.

Taking into account the higher feed value of soybean meal, this equates to a volume of approximately 2.2 million tons of soybean-meal equivalents that did not have to be imported.

The demand for cropland in the countries of origin, especially South America, decreased accordingly.

This “service” has not been credited to biodiesel or rapeseed production to date.

UFOP has therefore called for such service to be taken into account in an overall ecological evaluation in the future.

Similarly, the contribution rapeseed as a flowering crop makes towards fostering biodiversity in crop rotation should also be accounted for.