Although European demand for rapeseed is growing to make biodiesel fuel, European farmers were not able to increase their winter rapeseed plantings for 2004/05 because of poor weather, the US Agriculture Department said on Wednesday.
"Public forecasts for three countries, France (SCEES), Germany (UFOP) and Denmark (NYT), indicate virtually unchanged winter rapeseed area compared to 2003," the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service said in a special report.
Germany, France and the UK are the largest rapeseed producers in the European Union.
Public planting figures for the UK will not be available until later this spring. But in 2003/04, British farmers planted a record amount of rapeseed, the USDA said.
However, the UK National Farmers Union said that 30 percent of winter rapeseed fields planted during autumn 2003 had poor germination, and may need to be replanted with another crop, the USDA report said.
Winter rapeseed has a narrow planting window from late August to early September.
In 2003/04, the European Union is estimated to produce 9.46 million tonnes of rapeseed, up from 9.29 million the previous year, the USDA said.
Sunflower-seed production is estimated to be 2.54 million tons, nearly 0.22 million lower than 2002/03, it said.
Soybean area was roughly unchanged from last year, but below-average yields reduced production to 0.66 million tons, the lowest level since the European Union became a 15-member club in 1995, the USDA report said.