Speaking at the Global Grain conference in Geneva, Hemeline Macret of French analytical company Strategie Grains said 80% of the rapeseed consumed in the E.U. will likely be used for biodiesel by 2010-11.

Thus, as rapeseed oil is converted to biodiesel the leftover rapeseed meal will increasingly compete with traditional animal feed grains including wheat and corn. This comes as high grain prices have forced farmers to look at alternate feedstocks for their animals.

With wheat prices doubling this year, products such as rapeseed meal and the ethanol co-product dried distillers grain are becoming more attractive.

Although Strategie Grains forecasts all the major grains to achieve significant increases in production by 2010-11, rapeseed far outstrips others with an anticipated 50% increase in production to 26.4 million metric tons by 2010.

With the development of biofuels, rapeseed meal could replace around 3.3 million tons of grain by 2010-11, with grain animal feed consumption still seen at 141.2 million tons, said Macret.

European biodiesel production is forecast at 13.44 million tons by 2010-11, with the bulk being produced in France and Germany. However, capacity is expected to be significantly higher at 21.4 million tons.

Source: Agriculture Online