It was presented in the last crop report by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) that especially rapeseed fields are in bad conditions after winter. In total 37 % are in a poor or even in a very poor shape. That is another 12 % more than in comparison with the last report from November 2019. The main reasons are poor establishment during autumn, waterlogging over winter and pest damage, mainly through cabbage stem flea beetle.

The international market experts from Strategie Grains (France) presented in their early march estimation a total European rapeseed production of 17.85 mill. tons for harvest 2020 (including UK). These figures were based on several factors: a smaller rapeseed acreage with just 5,49 mill. hectares and many problems with rapeseed in the northern countries, where the rapeseed had to struggle with stronger precipitation in autumn and winter. This lead also to the situation, that some fields were flooded like in United Kingdom or Denmark. For the moment they still calculate with an average yield of 3,25 t/ha, which would be higher than last year (2019: 3.1 t/ha).     

Belarus increased during January and February 2020 the rapeseed oil export transactions via the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange (BUCE) up to 3.5 million dollar, which was by 26 times significantly more than in comparison with the same period in 2019. That was in detail around 4.600 tons of crushed rapeseed oil, which was 22 times more than same processing period in 2019. The main export countries were Latvia, Lithuania, Switzerland or Estonia. The BUCE in Belarus is an important commodity exchange for Eastern Europe. Hereby the core function is to support  Belarusian enterprises with exporting products and foreign companies by entering the Belarussian market.

The production of organic oilseed rape can be a profitable alternative for farmers in northern areas of Scandinavia - Scottish growers want to investigate that under local conditions and established an own project. The organic rapeseed can deliver an income up to 1.100 € per ton, based on two valuable products: rapeseed meal as a high-energy, respectively high-protein feed for the organic livestock and the oil, which can be used for human consumption. The project based on trip of farmers to Sweden, where they observed a substantial organic market with around 9% of the total rapeseed market.   

In comparison to the disappointing rapeseed year 2019, farmers keep believing on the profit potential of rapeseed and increased their rapeseed acreage up to 952.700 hectares (vs. 852.800 ha in 2019, + 12 %). Of course, the mild winter supported especially the rapeseed fields in East Germany, where many fields struggled with the tough germination conditions. The last crop estimation of the German Raiffeisen association from the beginning of March 2020 presented an estimated yield forecast for harvest 2020 with 3,6 t/ha and based on that a possible rapeseed production of 3.44 mill. tons (+22 % vs. 2019).

A rapeseed production area in the Southwest of China finds alternatives for the consequences of the Corona virus crisis. Based on the fact, that no big activities are allowed, they went online and present the beautiful flowering via virtual reality technology on smartphones. The project is running beside a rapeseed flower festival in the Sichuan Province. The viewers can follow the bloom of around 6.600 hectares. Several live-streaming activities also help to understand the local farming lifestyle in a better way.