Crop consultancy Strategie Grains expects rapeseed production in the European Union to fall by 10 percent in 2015 as both the sown area and average yields decline after this year's record harvest. In its first projection for 2015 rapeseed output in the EU, it put the crop at 21.6 million tonnes, down from an estimated 24.1 million this year. It forecast the average rapeseed yield would fall to 3.3 tonnes per hectare from 3.6 in 2014, citing long-term yield trends.
In its monthly oilseed report, it reiterated a forecast for a fall in the rapeseed area to 6.5 million hectares from 6.7 million harvested this year, which it attributed to lower gross margins for farmers compared with cereal crops. Rapeseed is the most widely grown oilseed crop in the EU and is used to make edible oil, biodiesel fuel and animal feed.
This year's EU crop, which Strategie Grains raised by 100,000 tonnes from its estimate a month ago, far surpassed a previous record near 22 million tonnes helped by good growing conditions across the 28-country bloc. Strategie Grains forecast sunseed production would fall by 4 percent next year to 8.5 million tonnes, while soybean output would be stable at 1.8 million tonnes.
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