“This year’s rapeseed season cannot compare to last year’s. The price decline to EUR300/ton makes this particular crop not that interesting,” says Alexandru Iancu, manager and shareholder of RodBun Grup, one of the top 20 local agribusiness groups.
“One must bear in mind that this is the riskiest of crops.”
The profit margins generated by rapeseed in the past seasons made farmers plant it on a larger area of land, so the total area increased by 50% to 380,000 hectares this year. The increase in harvest was largely because of the increase in crop area, because average yield has been almost constant.
At an average yield of 3 tons/hectare, a farmer gets about EUR900, which means gross profitability of about 20%.
The high production this year put Romania on the sixth place in the EU, leaving Denmark behind. The largest rapeseed producers in the EU are Germany, France and Poland.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)