Rapeseed planting to hit record high on good weather, Chinese demand

India's rapeseed planting is expected to hit a new high this year due to record Chinese buying of rapeseed meal and above-average rainfall that resulted in favourable soil moisture for the crop.

As the country's primary winter-sown oilseed, the surge in rapeseed production is also poised to help India, the world's largest importer of edible oil, limit costly overseas purchases of cooking oils.

"Farmers made great profits from last year's rapeseed crop, so this year, they're planting even more of it," said Anil Chatar, a leading trader based in Jaipur in the northwestern state of Rajasthan.

The combined planting area for rapeseed and closely related mustard is expected to increase by 7% to 8% this year, he said.

Indian farmers typically sow rapeseed in October and November. So far this year, they have planted 4.17 million hectares, a 13.5% increase compared to the same time last year.

The country planted 8.93 million hectares of rapeseed last year, higher than the five-year average of 7.9 million hectares.

There has been good demand for rapeseed oil domestically this year, while strong export demand for rapeseed meal has come from China, said B V Mehta, executive director of Solvent Extractors' Association of India.

China aggressively began purchasing rapeseed meal from India after Beijing in March imposed a 100% retaliatory tariff on rapeseed meal and oil imports from Canada, its top supplier.

In the first six months of the current fiscal year, which began on April 1, China imported a record 488,168 metric tons of rapeseed meal from India, compared to just 60,759 tons for the entire 2024/25 fiscal year, the association's data showed.

Strong demand for both meal and oil kept rapeseed prices above the minimum support price of 5,950 rupees ($68) per 100 kg set by New Delhi for last year's crop, said Chatar.

India has increased the minimum support price for the new season's rapeseed by 4.2% to 6,200 rupees.

"Rapeseed has way more oil than soybeans. If production keeps up with the planting, it'll help slow down the growth in India's edible oil imports," said a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trade house, who declined to be identified.

India meets nearly a third of its cooking oil demand through imports of palm oil, soyoil and sunflower oil from Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, Argentina, Ukraine and Russia.