Jonathan Lane, Gleadell’s trading director, comments on the OSR market

Harvest in the UK has all but ground to a halt. Most of the English crop is in the barn but there are still a few areas where crops remain in the field.

Yields to date been generally pleasing – anecdotal evidence we have received to date suggests an average of 4.45t/ha, giving the UK a similar 400,000t surplus to export, as last year.

The market has been a roller-coaster ride over the past week, with the MATIF rapeseed futures crashing €20/t at one point on Monday, only to recover all of its losses by Tuesday night.

This incredible volatility has been largely attributed to issues coming out of China with global stock markets, commodities and the US dollar all falling sharply. Given the current influence of the macro-environment it is very difficult to predict the next price move.

With China being the world’s largest buyer of soybeans there is now some big questions around that country’s on-going level of demand for US soybeans and what impact this may have on global oilseeds prices.

With all eyes now on the next USDA report in September, the only thing that is certain is that market volatility isn’t going away any time soon.