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

A wild week on the market! At the time of writing, the Matif rapeseed futures are exactly unchanged, but this is not at all reflective of the market volatility seen this week. Hot dry weather in France last week made the European grain and oilseeds sector very nervous, pushing prices sharply higher. At the peak, the market traded some €10/t higher, but this was short lived as the weather forecast indicated an easing in the heat wave, and traders refocussed on the bearish short-term fundamentals of the market.

We understand that one major crusher will be importing two cargoes of Australian rapeseed in July, just as European farmers start harvest. This, combined with adequate old crop carry-out stocks, will mean there are burdensome volumes of seed available during harvest.

In the UK, we have seen the impact of volatility in the Matif rapeseed futures and the foreign exchange markets, with UK ex-farm prices peaking at circa £305/t ex-farm, but today values are £10/t down from the highs. We still maintain that growers who need to move rapeseed at harvest should view any up-ticks in the market as selling opportunities.