Raw materials. Rapeseed oil ignites. His temperature has become boiling in the pot of speculation. The price of this oilseed broke its all-time high on Euronext this week. Thursday, September 16, it approached the bar of 600 euros per tonne. Unheard of for this agricultural raw material contract. To be compared to the price of 390 euros per tonne, negotiated in the summer of 2020. That is to say a jump of nearly 50%.
“There are several reasons for this boom in rapeseed. The first of these is none other than the small Canadian canola crop. Normally, this country produces around 20 million tonnes, and the harvest this year is between 12.5 million and 13 million tonnes. There is therefore a shortage of 7 million tonnes on the world market ”, emphasizes Arthur Portier, analyst at Agritel. Knowing that canola is the name given to GM rapeseed grown across the Atlantic and exported to the four corners of the planet, even to France. The “heat dome” that raged in early summer in Canada caused part of the production to go up in smoke.
Regulatory pressure
Another spark that is igniting the price of rapeseed is the spectacular surge in the price of palm oil. ” [Celle-ci] Currently trading at an extremely high level, at almost 4,500 ringgits [environ 916 euros] per tonne, compared to 2,000 to 2,500 ringgits per tonne usually ‘, affirms Mr. Portier, before adding: “Malaysia has faced a workforce problem with the coronavirus crisis. Almost 80% of the workers in the plantations are from Bangladesh and have had difficulty coming. As a result, some of the fruit rotted on the stalk. “
However, the stock market fate of the two oils is intimately linked. Palm or rapeseed oil, same fight. It is true that both are also prized by biodiesel manufacturers. And that regulatory pressure increases to increase the flow of vegetable oils in car tanks. The price of biodiesel, after a boost, linked to the confinement episodes in 2020, has recovered sharply, also driven by the rise in the price of black gold.
French farmers, who admired their carpets of golden flowers in April, are doing their bit. This year, they harvested 3.3 million tonnes of rapeseed. A result almost equivalent to that of 2020, despite a declining planted area. Some seeds planted in August suffered from the drought, and the grower turned the field to replace the rapeseed with another crop. The frost also did some damage during full bloom.
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