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

In the US soybean plantings continue without any problems and new crop bean futures have weakened over the week. The tight old crop US situation continues to offer support but new crop looks to be lacking bullish input at present.

In Europe the physical market remains fairly quiet with farmers reluctant to sell at present levels. Crops look good across the continent and with many farmers requiring harvest movement due to lack of storage we see the potential for a wave of selling over the next six weeks.  Some farmers on the continent are selling new crop wheat and holding rapeseed but we don’t see this pattern replicated in the UK.  Crush margins are profitable but they are poor in comparison to historical levels. In view of the lack of farmer selling we feel prices could potentially weaken into the harvest period.

In the UK we have started to see some new crop sales as farmers that require movement and cash look to lock in forward sales - that said the UK farmer has sold only a small percentage forward in comparison to previous years. Crops look good and we would advise farmers to make forward plans for their rapeseed as in our opinion selling at harvest at present doesn’t look an attractive option.