The final rapeseed crop figures published by the Ag Ministry of Bulgaria were left unchanged from their preliminary level. As a reminder, the 2017/18 total rapeseed crop amounted to 479 KMT that is down almost 6% from the previous year. The harvested area was the smallest in four years, at 160.7 Th ha, while yield was the highest on record in Bulgaria, at 2.98 MT/ha. The latter increased slightly from the 2016/17 high of 2.97 MT/ha, UkrAgroConsult’s analysts report.
Taking into account that rapeseed is an export-oriented crop for Bulgaria, where its export share occasionally exceeds 90%, the foreign trade capacity directly depends on the crop amount. As expected, rapeseed supplies to foreign markets in the 2017/18 season fell down 12.6% from the 2016/17 season. The market is focused on Europe, whose market share totaled to 93% in MY 2017/18.
As for 2018/19 season, based on a relatively large harvest area reported, the initial expectations about the Bulgarian rapeseed market looked quite optimistic.