Germany’s rapeseed oil exports in the 2022/23 marketing year (MY) increased by 19% to just under 1.3M tonnes following a significant decline the previous year, according to a report by Germany’s Union for the Promotion of Oil and Plant Proteins (UFOP).
However, exports were 6% lower than the volume reached in the 2020/21 MY, according to the 22 September report.
The Netherlands remained the largest recipient country of German rapeseed oil in 2022/23, taking shipments of just over 710,400 tonnes. This volume was, however, destined for onward export to worldwide destinations. In the previous season, exports to the Netherlands were around 19% lower.
Belgium was the second largest importer of German rapeseed oil, receiving 110,800 tonnes – around 28% more than in the previous year.
Other major destinations included Denmark, France and Norway. France, which purchased around 58,400 tonnes (10% lower), remains an important market, according to the report.
Denmark received around 72,100 tonnes (an increase of 12%).
However, shipments to Norway showed the largest increase, nearly doubling over the previous year's volume to 53,600 tonnes.
China, Sweden, the UK, Finland and Brazil also imported significantly more than in 2021/22, while deliveries to Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland declined.
“The development exports have taken underlines the importance Germany has for the supply of rapeseed oil and … high-protein animal feed rapeseed meal to the European Union,” the UFOP said.
“The UFOP expects the importance of European rapeseed production for climate change mitigation – and consequently that of rapeseed oil as an iLUC [indirect land use change] free feedstock – to become more visible as the EU database will be introduced towards the end of the year, as announced by the EU Commission.”
Similar to Nabisy, the database system of the German Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE), the EU database would record sustainability certificates for biodiesel and HVO that can be counted towards quota obligations, the association said.
