Rapeseed in Ukraine: Holding Global Leadership despite the Decrease in Production
Rapeseed is an important oleic crop for the Ukrainian agricultural sector. During last marketing year its export resulted in 500 million USD revenue, while the EU market was the largest consumer. It helped Ukraine to be listed among the world’s largest producers and exporters of this crop.
Rapeseed is one of the key technical crops
In 2016-17 marketing years, Ukraine produced 1,2 million tons of rapeseed – the 4th largest production volume among all technical crops.
Ukraine is the third largest rapeseed producer in the world
Ukraine is the third largest exporter of rapeseed in the world
From 1,2 million tons of rapeseed produced by Ukraine in 2016/2017 marketing year, 1 million tons went for export. Export of the larger share of produced rapeseed makes Ukraine one of its three world’s largest exporters.
EU is the main importer of the Ukrainian rapeseed
In total, Poland, Belgium, France, Germany, and the Netherlands imported 339,4 million USD worth of rapeseed – 82% of the total revenue from its export in 2016/2017 marketing year.
EU is the world’s leader in rapeseed production and export
Currently, rapeseed is one of the strategic crops for the European agricultural sector. Though according to the report of the European Commission in next 10 years its production will be reduced in favor of soybean and sunflower – European farmers place bets on fodder crops, as the biofuel production is not a priority anymore.
Rapeseed is the third crop in terms of occupied arable lands
0,5 million hectares of arable lands in Ukraine are planted with rapeseed. Among oleic crops, larger areas are planted only with soybean and sunflower.
The yield capacity of rapeseed more than tripled
During last 20 years, Ukrainian farmers increased the yield capacity of rapeseed from 8,5 hundredweight per hectare to 25,7 hundredweight per hectare.
Rapeseed is the third most popular high oleic crop in the world
High-oleic oil produced from high-oleic rapeseed retains its consumer qualities during 17 hours. This, as well as the simplicity of its cultivation, make a rapeseed third most widespread high oleic crop in the world.
