Jonathan Lane, Gleadell’s Trading Manager, comments on the OSR market

This week we have seen MATIF rapeseed tick up around €5. We believe there’s been some short covering and position squaring ahead of tonight’s USDA report. At present we believe farmers should be selling into any short-term rallies.

Soybeans have rallied around 50 cents this week due to hotter weather in the short-range forecasts. Longer term forecasts point to favourable conditions. The market continues to take direction from US weather.

In Europe crop conditions remain favourable. The rapeseed harvest has started in the south of France and we remain on course for a large crop.

In the UK the market remains relatively quiet as we approach the harvest period. Farmers have forward sold less crop than normal so we expect trade to increase dramatically in the harvest period. Although the rapeseed crop remains generally in poor condition across the UK we are hearing reports from farms in the south of considerable crop improvement following better weather.