PARIS, Oct 6 (Reuters) – Crop consultancy Strategie Grains expects the area sown with rapeseed in the European Union for harvest in 2015 to fall around three percent due mainly to a significant fall in the crop’s gross margins after a slump in prices.
In its first estimates for the 2015-16 marketing season, Strategie Grains put the harvestable area in the EU at 6.5 million hectares, down from more than 6.7 million in 2013-14 and 2012-13.
It expects EU sunflower area would rise slightly, to 4.3 million hectares against 4.2 million in 2014-15, but short of the 4.5 million hectares harvested in 2013-14.
For soybean, the area in 2015-16 would remain stable at 600,000 hectares, the consultancy said.
Strategie Grains said its forecasts were likely to change in line with sowing conditions to come.
