Farmers in the Rhine-Main area can hope for a good rapeseed harvest this year.

The President of the Hessian Farmers' Association, Karsten Schmal, said at a press conference on Wednesday that frost damage had hardly occurred.

Farmers could expect up to four tons of rapeseed per hectare.

Rapeseed oil can be obtained from this, so that cooking oil is not in short supply, even if the usual imports of sunflower oil from the Ukraine are canceled due to the war there.

Jan Schiefenhoevel

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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If cooking oil should become scarce, it will be due to panic buying, not a shortage of raw materials.

In the Rhine-Main area, rapeseed is now in full bloom, and the bright yellow can be seen everywhere in the fields.

Schmal said that Ukraine is an important supplier of oil and oil crops on the world market.

In recent years, in addition to finished cooking oil, rapeseed has also been imported from there for further processing in oil mills in Germany.

These imports, too, were probably canceled because of the war.

Rapeseed is grown in the north of Ukraine, while the sunflower-growing areas are in the south of the country.

Rapeseed oil is already very popular in Germany as an ingredient for cooking and has a market share of 40 percent among cooking oils.

Sunflower oil follows in second place with a 29 percent market share, followed by olive oil with 16 percent.

Sustainability with rapeseed

According to Schmal, the strong demand for oil crops as a result of the war in Ukraine is having a strong impact on prices.

The price of rapeseed has risen to its highest level ever recorded in recent weeks.

According to Schmal, 700 euros are currently being offered for a ton of rapeseed.

The producers could already enter into a contract with the buyers and commit themselves to this price now, months before the harvest, which would then be paid to them in the summer harvest season.

The price of rapeseed, sunflower seeds and soybeans on the world market had already risen last year, partly because of a poor harvest in Canada, added Ernst-Winfried Döhne, chairman of the Hessian producer organization for rapeseed, which acts as an intermediary and buys the farmers' products.

In Hesse, rapeseed grows on an area of ​​almost 46,000 hectares, as the farmers' president explained.

In 2013, the area under cultivation was significantly larger at almost 64,000 hectares.

In 2019, rapeseed was then planted on an exceptionally small area because some of the seed did not sprout in 2018 due to the severe drought.

About 400 liters of oil can be extracted from one ton of rapeseed.

According to the producer association, half of this is processed into cooking oil and the other half into biodiesel.

The production of biodiesel from the renewable raw material is a contribution to climate protection, said Schmal.

Lubricating oil, for example for chainsaws, can also be made from rapeseed.

This is 100 percent biodegradable.

The pressing residue that remains when the oil is pressed from the grains is also used, as Schmal said.

This rapeseed meal is a protein-rich feed for cattle, pigs and poultry, which saves on animal feed imports.

One ton of rapeseed yields 600 kilograms of animal feed.

The rapeseed plants with their flowers would also benefit the bees because they also provide them with food.

In one hectare of rapeseed field, the insects could collect nectar for almost 500 kilograms of honey.

The rapeseed plant improves the soil quality, as explained by farmer Jürgen Pauly.

Their roots remain in the ground after harvesting, this biomass promotes microorganisms.

This makes rapeseed a good “pre-crop” if something else is going to be grown in the field next year.