Factsheet Rapeseed (Canola) 2008

The world production of rapeseed is expected to grow more than 13% in 2008 to 54.4 million tons after a stagnation in the last two years. With 18.2 million tons the EU-27 is by far the largest producer in 2007 (+13%) and production is still growing. Germany and France are the main cultivators of rapeseed in the EU. Upcoming producers are the Ukraine and within the EU Poland.

Total area of GM rapeseed has more than doubled to 5.5 million hectares in the period 2001-2007, almost 20% of rapeseed acreage worldwide. Japan is the most important importer and Canada by far the largest exporter of (mainly GM) rapeseed.

The EU is the largest consumer of rapeseed oil and had a share of 36% in world production of rapeseed oil in 2006/2007. In the last few years the EU consumption increased continually especially because of extra demand of the biodiesel industry. EU biodiesel demand for rapeseed oil is flattening. It’s estimated that in 2007/2008 62% of EU rapeseed oil consumption is intended for biodiesel. Total rapeseed oil consumption for the food sector in the EU is around 2.9 million tons in 2007/2008 which means a return to the level of 2001/2002.

The Netherlands is with a harvest of 11,800 tons in 2007 a very small producer of rapeseed. The Dutch crushing of rapeseed increased from 25,000 ton in 2005 to almost 522,000 tons in 2007. This is 3.1% of total EU rapeseed crushing production.