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

The UK and European old crop markets are now all but finished, with little activity in the broker markets and small volumes coming off farm. The new crop market remains equally slow, with a lack of farmer selling and the crush uninterested in new crop at current levels. In Europe where crops are looking good, farmers have been equally reluctant to sell, but we expect market activity to pick up significantly over the next 2-3 weeks.

MATIF rapeseed moved lower towards the end of the week following canola and soybeans, which came under pressure having had a fairly significant rally over the past week or so. The soybean market in particular remains volatile.

Wet weather continues to delay soybean plantings in the US, which has helped the new crop soybean contract rally. We feel that soybean acreage will ultimately be increased and the additional soil moisture should aid conditions. The soybean market is now very much about the weather!

Following some positive economic data this week sterling has firmed against the euro weakening domestic prices; £1 buys €1.175 at the time of writing.