Despite a Price Rally, EU Farmers Are Questioning The Future of Canola Production
Despite a price rally keeping returns high, EU farmers are questioning whether to continue planting rapeseed as pest damage ravages their crops.
As prices reach their highest since 2013, the EU harvested its smallest crop in 13 years due to dry weather, and a ban on neonicotinoid-pesticides that have left crops more vulnerable to pests. Now, as the window for sowing the 2020 crop approaches and dry weather continues, farmers in the EU’s leading producing countries are deciding if they should limit their acreage, or switch to alternative crops such as oats.
In 2013 the EU banned the use of neonicotinoids, which have been linked as a possible cause of bee colony collapse, for use on rapeseed, sunflower, and corn crops. These restrictions were widened last year, when the ban was extended to all production except greenhouses.
The EU’s small harvest has also meant that imports have increased, with imports since July 1 more than doubling compared to the same time period a year before.
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